








ft- 






^^^BtoV 1 ** 






o JS^k > ^ 



'■SI 
III LI BRAKY OF C0XG1I1 ! 



> 






XJTEI) STATES OF AMERICA. 1 



*£4iM 






2-3 
















^>j3 



ai»"'^sas» 






SO 5 " 55 

3* 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 



4 New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other 
reason, but because they are not already common; but Truth, like gold, is not the 
less so for being newly brought out of the mine.' 

Locke. 

4 The harmony of a science, supporting each part the other, is, and ought t be. 
the true and brief confutation and suppression of all the smaller sort of objections.' 

Lo»d Bacon. 

1 The inquiry of truth, which is the love-making or wooing of it j the knowledge of 
truth, whicn is the presence of it ; and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it 
— are the sovereign good of human nature. 

4 Certainly it is heaven upon eaith, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in 
Providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.' 

Lord Bacon. 



A MEMOIR 



OF THE 



LIFE AND PHILOSOPHY 



OF 



SPURZHEIM. 



ANDREW CARMICHAEL, M. R. I. A. 

LATE PRESIDENT OF THE PHRENOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF DUBLIN; AND 
PUBLISHED AT THE DESIRE OF THAT SOCIETY. 



FIRST AMERICAN EDITION, 

WITH NOTES. 



* Friend of Man— of God the Servant', 
Advocate of truths divine; 
Nature's Priest — how pure and fervent 
Was thy worship at her shrine !' 

Rev. Mr. Pierpont's Ode at the Funeral of 
Spurzheim. Nov. 17, 1832. 



BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED BY MARSH, CAPEN & LYON, 
AND LILLY, WAIT & CO. 

1833. 



7> 



.f* to r 






Phrenologists are much indebted to Mr. Carmichael for 
this valuable contribution towards a full biography of Dr. 
Spurzheim. A fine spirit of devotion to the cause of 
calumniated merit, and of affection for the man, pervades 
every page of it ; and it is impossible not to love and 
admire the author, in perusing the glowing and beautiful 
effusions of lofty feeling ^ith which his work abound* 

Edinburgh Phren. Journal. 



Printed by Kane ic Co. 
127 \Vashiugton street. 



PRESIDENT, VICE-PRESTDENTS, AND MEMBERS OF 
THE PHRENOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF DUBLIN, 

IS INSCRIBED 

This imperfect and inadequate Memoir of the efforts and 
triumphs of our common Friend. Justly attached to him, 
you extend your good-will to every thing connected with 
his name; and too hastily presume, that whatever is inter- 
esting to you will prove of equal interest to the world. 
Your wishes are commands to me; and they have been 
obeyed. Yet we may find that the world will sympathize 
but little with us, in the studies we pursue, or the loss we 
deplore. 

Amongst you are many of the most valued and attached 
of my Friends. To each and to all, these pages are dedi- 
cated; but particularly to him, who, more partial still than 
others, imposed this task as a sacred duty upon me — who, 
ardent in the cause of truth, yet delights in q,uiet as his 
element — and whose affectionate, cheerful, philosophic, ra- 
tionally-religious converse has mingled such rare felicity 
with so many of my hours. Next: to him, of similar dis- 
positions, but more adventurous daring — equally a man of 



IV DEDICATION. 

peace, yet shrinking from no field of controversy — alike in 
diversified excellence, alike in unvarying kindness, and 
alike in the happy inclination to encourage and approve. 
Again: to him, who was the first to commend, and call 
forth the commendations of others — to him, and to every 
one, who reflected back his good-nature, and re-echoed his 
suffrage; and who, I am confident, will form an union of 
talent, energy, and information, amply qualified to dissemi- 
nate through the community the principles and influence 
of Phrenology — ambitious as they must be to emulate the 
example of that highly-gifted body, which is the ornament 
and the boast of the Athens of Britain — 

'THE PHRENOLOGICAL SOCIETY.* 
To the Members of that enlightened Association, whose 
breath has dissipated the mil ce } prejudice, and 

malignity, which overclou l< 1 the horizon, nol their 

own, but of many another realm, I also tondi 
homage. But particular!} to him, who was first and la*t 
in the sacred cause — always persevering, always ind< 
gable, always victorious ; and who, more than all others, 
participates in our present regret, because, more than all 
others, he knew the value of Spurzheim; and is competent 
to appreciate the magnitude of a bereavement like thi>, 
to the disappointed affections of Friends, and the un- 
tied wants of Society — who already has achieved such 
Herculean labors in vindication of the true science of 
mind — who alone can replace the unwearied Atlas we 
have lost ; and sustain the ponderous burthen he so proudly 
upheld. 



DEDICATION. V 

And lastly, I am desirous to include, in my warmest pro- 
fessions of respect and admiration, 

THE PHRENOLOGISTS OF BOSTON, 

AWD 

THE OTHER CITIZENS OF AMERICA, 

who, trained to liberty, untrammelled by prejudice, and 
disdaining every species of mental bondage, sought, from 
the opposite side of the globe, an Instructor, well knowing 
how to emancipate Minds from the despotism of Error, 
and establish the commonwealth of Truth and Nature, 
Freedom and Morality, Reason and Religion. Every city, 
every village, every university, every school of art and 
academy of science, thirsted for the promised stream of 
knowledge; but while it yet poured its living waters, the 
source was dried up — the current ceased to flow. How 
inscrutable are the ways of Providence ! The good intend- 
ed by God is always, in the end, accomplished — yet how 
seldom accomplished by the means expected or prescribed 
by man. In the mid-day exertion of his resplendent 
usefulness, Spurzheim perished. It is for Providence, 
who has the will and the power, to repair this great ca- 
lamity. 

The Americans at first welcomed him as a stranger — 
early they acknowledged him as a friend — too early they 
wept over him as a Brother. At this side of the Atlantic, 
with the tears of sorrow for the man, are mingled tears of 
applause, of gratitude, of sympathizing affection, an unex- 



VI DEDICATION. 



torted tribute of the heart, to that great people, who 
knew so well how to honor distinguished Worth, and con- 
secrate the memory of distinguished Wisdom and distin- 
guished Virtue. 



A MEMOIR, 

&c. &c. 



The world has lost another benefactor. — The 
founder of Phrenology, that science teeming with 
the amelioration of society and the happiness of the 
species, was soon followed by his equally illustrious 
coadjutor. — Gall is no more — Spurzheim is no more. 
They are both beyond the influence of their presump- 
tuous, arrogant, envious, shallow, malignant adversaries 
— and may peaceably take their places in the temple 
of Fame, among the Bacons, the Harveys, the New- 
tons, and the Lockes; and the noblest inmates of the 
fane will not disdain to see them grace even loftier 
pedestals than their own. 

At the close of our last session we were extolling 
the magnanimity of our celebrated friend, in disregard- 
ing the quiet of home and the discomforts and suffer- 
ings of an Atlantic voyage, to visit, in the autumn of 
his days, a land of strangers, in the simple hope of be- 
ing serviceable to mankind, by planting his science in 
another hemisphere. We anticipated the welcome 
those strangers would give him — we anticipated the 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 



vigor with which his science would flourish in that new 
and healthy soil — we were proud to believe that, under 
his own skilful and fostering hand, it would overspread 
that mighty continent — and above all, we strenuously 
hoped, that the disappointments and vexations he had 
too often and too bitterly experienced in Europe, 
would be expunged from his recollection in America ; 
and that the triumph of his doctrines, the increased 
splendor of his reputation, and the idolatry of his new 
friends (for the friendship with which Spurzheim was 
ever regarded was almost idolatry) would encompass 
him with a halo of happiness beyond any he could look 
for at this side of the Atlantic. — But we did not antici- 
pate — we did not expect, that, at the opening of this 
session — so soon — so suddenly — we should have to la- 
ment that his active usefulness had ceased — his en- 
lightened labors ended. Yet we have still where- 
withal to console us. It is true, his lamp of life is 
extinguished ; but he has not left the world in dark- 
ness ; he has lighted up a flame in every civilized re- 
gion of the earth. Philosopher after Philosopher — 
Phrenologist after Phrenologist may die — but Phre- 
nology can never perish — It is everlasting, like 

THE OTHER TRUTHS OF GOD. 

John Gaspar Spurzheim was born on the 31st of 
December, 1776, at Longuich, near Treves, on the 
Moselle, about sixty or seventy English miles from its 
confluence with the Rhine, atCobl entz. It is stated, 
in recent public journals, that his father was a farmer, 
and educated him for the clerical profession* He ac- 



MEMOIR OF SPURZIIE1M. O 

quired the first rudiments of Greek and Latin in his 
native village; to which, he added Hebrew at the uni- 
versity of Treves, where he matriculated in 1791, in 
his fifteenth year, and where he also entered upon the 
study of Divinity and Philosophy, of both of which, in 
his riper years, he was a consummate master. In 
1792, the republican armies of France overran the 
south of Germany, and seized upon Treves. Spurz- 
heim retired to Vienna, where he was received into the 
family of Count Splangen, who entrusted to him the 
education of his sons. 

Gall, at that time, was settled as a physician in Vi- 
enna, and had in his charge many of the hospitals, and 
other public institutions requiring medical superinten- 
ded' •. His house was open to every one who wished 
for iiiibrmation in his newly discovered science. In 
1796, he delivered his first private course ; but it does 
not appear that Spurzheim attended his lectures until 
1800 ; and even, at this time, they continued to be 
private. ' He then spoke of the brain as the general 
ore;an of the mind — of the necessitv of considering 
the brain as divided into different special organs — and 
of the possibility of determining those organs by the 
development of individual parts of the brain, exhibited 
in the external configuration of the head. He admit- 
ted organs of different specific memories, and of several 
feelings, ,# particularly language, constructiveness, color, 

* See Spurzheim's notes to Chenevix's pamphlet on Phre- 
nology. 



4 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

tune, locality, form, number, and individuality ; 
and these he chiefly dwelt on as organs of memory, 
and did not advert with much attention to the other 
powers and propensities inherent in them, although the 
.second in the list (and I have named them in the order 
in which they were discovered) obviously consisted 
more of an intellectual impulse than a memory. 

Such was the Physiological state of the science 
when Spurzheim became a convert to its doctrines, in 
his twenty-third year. Its condition, with respect to 
anatomy, was equally imperfect. Gall was sensible 
that physiognomical means alone, were not sufficient to 
discover the physiology of the brain ; and that anatomy 
w T as a necessary coadjutor. He was confirmed in this 
conviction, by observing a poor woman af Vrted with 
hydrocephalus, who, though reduced to great weak- 
ness, continued to possess an active and intelligent 
mind. After her death, four pounds of water were 
found in her head ; the brain was much distended, but 
not destroyed or dissolved ; he therefore concluded, 
that the structure of this organ must be very different 
from what it was commonly supposed to be. 

As Gall's time was greatly occupied by his profes- 
sional duties, he employed a student to dissect for him. 
Mr. Niclas' investigations were, however, conducted 
according to the old school, and with mere mechanical 
views ; but, from the moment Spurzheim became the 
associate of Gall, which was in 1S04, the anatomy of 
the brain assumed a new character. He specially ua- 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. O 

dertook the prosecution of the anatomical department ; 
and in their public and private demonstrations, he al- 
ways made the dissections^ and Gall explained them to 
the students. 

Before he united with Gal] he had terminated his 
studies in the medical schools ; he was, therefore, at 
full liberty to devote all his time and intelligence to the 
science, which, even at its first opening upon him, had 
fascinated his understanding ; and which continued 
through life his occupation, his pleasure, and, in a 
double sense, his glory. With redoubled zeal, and ac- 
cumulated power, they pursued their investigations to- 
gether. Their reflections on the existence of so rrnny 
specific memories, altogether different, soon led them 
to a discovery still more important. They observed 
that those who possessed a peculiar memory wore 
gratified in exerting it, and felt a pleasure in pursuing 
the objects connected with it. Those endowed with a 
verbal memory had a strong propensity to exercise it 
in recitation, or in the study of languages ; while those 
w T ho were remarkable for a local memory, entertained 
a similar inclination to visit a variety of places, and 
observe and compare the diversified relations of sensi- 
ble space, and so of the memory of persons, tunes, 
facts, he. It therefore naturally occurred to their un- 
derstandings, that the organs of the mind are very dif- 
ferent from those supposed by philosophers, from Aris- 
totle down to Locke, Reid, and Stewart ; and that 
there is not a general perception which takes cogni 
zance of all sensations — a general memory which re- 
2* 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 



tains the recollection of names, numbers, places, tunes, 
facts, and every kind of object — a general imagination, 
which combines them in new forms, and a general 
judgment which compares and ascertains their differ- 
ences ; but, that the organ of language, the organ of 
space, the organ of number, the organ of music, are 
gifted, at once, with their own separate and distinct 
perception, memory, imagination, and judgment, and 
actuated by a propensity to exercise their respective 
faculties on their appropriate objects. They, there- 
fore, were led to believe, that each organ was devoted 
to a special purpose, not hitherto imagined by philoso- 
phers ; and, in subservience to that purpose, was sepa- 
rately endowed with all the faculties, which, till now, 
were ascribed to the understanding at large. 

Animals, whose intellectual powers are so much infe- 
rior to those of man, obviously possess perception, 
memory, judgment, and imagination, though restricted 
within a narrow and limited range of exercise. But, 
they can neither abstract, nor generalize, nor discern 
the relation of cause and effect. It may then be con- 
sidered an argument for the existence of those separate 
and peculiar powers of perception, memory, judgment, 
and imagination, that other animals possess those gifts 
as well as man, in proportion to the organs with which 
they are endowed, whether few or numerous. But if 
they can exercise their understandings in comparing 
such objects as are under the cognizance of any one of 
their organs, and even exerting the power of invention 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 7 

in a partial and unconnected manner, they can probably 
go no farther. They cannot, like man, bring into one 
general comparison the divers objects of all their or- 
gans ; and analyze, select, and combine, the similar 
and kindred, the remote and heterogeneous materials 
of invention, scattered through different regions of the 
brain. Man, alone, enjoys this privilege; and it be- 
came the first object of the united labors of these phi- 
losophers to discover the organ of this important fac- 
ulty. Among men remarkable for the talent of illustra- 
ting one circumstance by another, and bringing togeth- 
er particulars that create a reciprocal light, they found 
the organ of comparison. — Among those who studied 
the philosophy of mind and the phenomena of nature, 
they found the organ of causality. 

Gall had been led to the discovery of all the organs 
he had yet ascertained, by observing the actions of in- 
dividuals, and attending to their mental operations in a 
state of activity ; such, for example, as the facility in 
recollecting and repeating whatever series of words had 
been committed to memory — skill in the mechanical 
arts, designing, and music — the exercise of memory in 
respect of places, persons, numbers, events and phenom- 
ena — the propensity to travel, to calculate, to search 
after knowledge, to compare the analogies of things, to 
ascend to causes, to descend to effects. These several 
faculties during their activity and manifestation in indi- 
viduals, betrayed one after another the seat of their re- 
spective organs. It was, therefore, not surprising, that 



8 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

Gall, when he abandoned the beaten track of the 
schools, after an irksome and unprofitable search for 
general organs of memory, judgment, and imagination, 
should seize with eagerness, the conjecture, that every 
class of actions might have an appropriate organ in the 
brain. In considering, therefore, the most striking and 
energetic actions of men, he noticed rapine, murder, 
and lust — he observed benevolence, justice, and piety 
— unshaken firmness, and hesitating caution — pride 
wrapped in its own opinion, ambition wrapped in the 
opinions of others — cunning, that succeeds in the dark — 
violence, courage, and magnanimity, that disdain any 
but an open triumph. He visited the prisons, the hos- 
pitals, the schools, and the churches of Vienna; and 
he found organs which he did not hesitate to name as 
the organs of theft, murder, and cunning, benevolence, 
and religion. He considered the actions of men, 
whether good or evil, as necessarily flowing from the 
organization they received from nature, without ad- 
verting to the primitive power their organs were des- 
tined to exercise in a healthy and unvitiated state. But 
as no man is a universal genius, it was here his phi- 
losophy was eclipsed by that of his coadjutor. Spurz- 
heim had the merit of pointing out the primitive pow- 
ers of the different organs, and discriminating between 
the institutions of God, and the abuses of those institu- 
tions. 

Gall continued to lecture in his own house, at Vien- 
na, until the government of Austria, in 1602, thought 
proper to interdict his lectures. He lingered, howev- 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHE1M. 9 

er, for three years in that city : but, at length, on the 
6th of March, 1805, he and his fellow-laborer took 
their departure together, with the intention, however, 
of returning to this, their home, if a more liberal spirit 
should arise. But this spirit has not yet arisen in Aus- 
tria. They first visited the parents of Gall, who resid- 
ed at Tiefenbrun, near Pforsheim, in Swabia; and va- 
rious invitations from the northern universities of Ger- 
many, induced them to go from place to place, dis- 
seminating their doctrines, making new observations, 
collecting facts in every region they visited, satisfying 
public curiosity, which had become intense on the sub- 
ject, and establishing a renown which may now bid 
defiance to every assailant. 

Their first scientific visit was to Berlin, which they 
entered on the 17th of April, 1805. There they pur- 
sued their phrenological investigations in the prisons 
and hospitals ; and repeated their anatomical demon- 
strations in the presence of the medical professors and 
numerous auditors. Outlines of their lectures were 
published by Professor BischofF. From Berlin they 
went to Potsdam, thence to Leipzig, Dresden, and 
Halle. At Halle, their lectures and demonstrations 
were attended by the very Reil from whom they were 
charged with pillaging the self-same discoveries, in the 
structure of the brain, which, on that occasion, they 
taught him, both in public and private dissections. — 
His own acknowledgements were, i I have seen more 
in the anatomical demonstrations of the brain, by Gall, 



10 MEMOIR OF SPURZnElM. 

than, I conceived, a man could discover in the course 
of a long life. 5 In the same year they visited Weimar, 
Jena, Gottingen, Brunswick, Hamburgh, Kiel, and 
Copenhagen. In 1806, they visited Bremen, Munster, 
Amsterdam, Ley den, Frankfort, Heidelberg, Man- 
heim, Stutgard, and Fribourg. In 1807, they visited 
Maibourgh, Wurtzbourg, Munich, Augsburgh, Ulm, 
Zurich, Berne and Bale. They either lectured on, or 
demonstrated the brain in each of those cities ; and 
Doctor Knoblanch, of Leipzig, Doctor Bloed, of Dres- 
den, and many other scientific men, followed the ex- 
ample of Professor Bischoff, in publishing outlines of 
their anatomical and physiological views, and other 
works connected with the subject. Their classes were 
well attended ; but the great mass of the learned re- 
mained unconverted. They are now, however, re- 
penting of their injustice to their distinguished country- 
men : they are investigating the truth of the science 
with ardor ; and a translation of Gall's great work into 
his native language, has, at length, appeared. 

In the autumn of I SOT, they arrived in Paris ; end 
in the presence of Cuvier, Fourcroy, Geoffroy de St. 
Hilaire, Dumaril, Demangeon, and others, they dis- 
sected the brain, and repeated their demonstrations 
before many learned societies. Here, at length, they 
became tired of wandering; and determined on re- 
maining a few years. In this city they continued their 
investigations and lectures. The objections made to 
their doctrines, on the ground of the intellectual powers 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 11 

evinced by hydrocephalic patients, induced them to re- 
new their anatomical studies with still greater ardor ; 
and they were, at length, enabled to demonstrate, that 
the convolutions of the brain consist of a double pelli- 
cle, and that the water insinuating between the parts, 
unfolds and distends them into the form of a thin and 
expanded vesicle ; and which, they argued, might re- 
tain, to a considerable extent, the original powers of the 
brain. They also entered into the minutest examina- 
tion of every part of the brain and nervous system, 
and presented a memoir on the subject, in the year 
1808, to the French Institute. It was referred to a 
committee of five, amongst whom was the celebrated 
Cuvier. Their report was favorable to Gall and 
Spurzheim in some parts — they differed from them in 
others; and as to some of their discoveries, they gave 
the merit to other anatomists. But little pleased with 
this report, Gall and Spurzheim vindicated their claims 
to originality in their answer, and maintained the utili- 
ty of their discoveries, and the truth of their demon- 
strations, with so much vigor and perspicuity, that 
there never was any reply on the part of the Insti- 
tute. 

In 1810, they published, conjointly, in the French 
language, their ' Anatomy and Physiology of the Ner- 
vous System in general, and of the Brain in particular.' 
But neither their writings or lectures, seem to have 
made, at that period, many converts in the capital of 
France. There is no adversary to truth so powerful 
any where, as the force of ridicule ; and among the 



12 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

French, it seems to have double power : unfortunately, 
phrenology in its infancy was too open to this assailant; 
and where was the Frenchman that would offer him- 
self as the champion, even of truth, at the hazard of 
being thought ridiculous ? Spurzheim got weary of 
endeavoring to teach those who were ashamed to learn, 
and hoped that England would prove a more practica- 
ble field. His separation from Gall took place in 
1813. He first, however, returned to Vienna, to take 
his degree of M. D., leaving Gall in Paris, where he 
was desirous of establishing himself as a physician. 

Spurzheim passed over to England in 1814, and in 
the same year, delivered lectures in London, which 
were well attended. He lost no time in publishing a 
large volume, which he entitled ■ The Physiognomical 
System of Drs. Gall and Spurzheim, founded on an 
Anatomical and Physiological examination of the Ner- 
vous System in general, and of the Brain in particular, 
and indicating the dispositions and manifestations of 
the Mind.' This work appeared in 1815, and in- 
stantly, a swarm of reviewers fastened on it. The 
Quarterly, the Eclectic, the British, the Edinburgh, 
the Critical and the Monthly, the London Medical Re- 
pository, and the British Critic, all exerted their pow- 
ers of ridicule, invective and argument ; not a review- 
er was found to stand up in defence of these novel 
truths — not one had the sagacity to perceive that they 
were truths — or having the sagacity, it was their duty 
as reviewers, to extinguish them because they were 
new. 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 13 

The Quarterly affords a splendid specimen of witty 
malignity — The Edinburgh, a miserable specimen of 
malignity without wit. For instance, the writer of this 
review compliments these itinerant philosophers, 
quacks, mountebanks, and men of skulls, on their su- 
perior cleverness in discovering that a man's reputation 
as well as his health may often be prolonged by a little 
well-timed locomotion. ' There is indeed nothing,' 
continues this reviewer, £ in the shape of reasoning cal- 
culated to mislead in their whole writings. Not one 
clever sophistry to captivate; nor even an occasional 
successful induction to redeem ; nothing but a perpet- 
ual substitution of assertion for demonstration, and 
conjecture for fact. Were they even to succeed in 
shaking off the suspicion of mala fides, which we ap- 
prehend is inseparably attached to their character, we 
should not hesitate to say, that we do not know any 
writers, who, with a conceit so truly ludicrous, and so 
impudent a contempt for the opinions and labors of 
others, are so utterly destitute of every qualification 
necessary for the conduct of a philosophical investiga- 
tion.'* 

The reviewer is so heartily tired of the mass of non- 
sense he has been obliged to wade through, that he 
could most willingly have done. But the anatomical 
discoveries of Drs. Gall and Spurzheim are on no ac- 
count to be passed over in silence ; for it appears to 
him, that in this department they have displayed more 

* Edinburgh Review, June, 1815, p. 227. 
3 



14 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 



quackery than in any other; and their bad faith is 
here the more unpardonable that it was so much more 
likely to escape detection.'* 'The writings of Drs. 
Gall and Spurzheim have not added one fact to the 
stock of our knowledge respecting either the structure 
or the functions of man ; but consist of such a mixture 
of gross errors, extravagant absurdities, downright mis- 
statements, and unmeaning quotations from scripture, 
as can leave no doubt, we apprehend, in the minds of 
honest and intelligent men as to the real ignorance, 
the real hypocrisy, and the real empiricism of the au- 
thors.'! 

Such was the beneficent harbinger that preceded the 
advent of Dr. Spurzheim to this country at the close 
of the same year. He arrived in November, 1S15, 
but found every mind poisoned against him by these 
liberal and philosophic effusions. — I did not myself 
escape the infection. It was with difficulty I was per- 
suaded to enter his lecture-room ; but having then an 
abundance of leisure, I thought a few hours would not 
be much misspent in indulging an idle curiosity, and 
reaping some little amusement where 1 could hope but 
for little information. 

I listened to his first lecture, expecting it to breathe- 
nothing but ignorance, hypocrisy, deceit, and empiri- 
cism. I found it fraught with learning and inspired by 
truth ; and in place of a hypocrite and empiric, I found 
a man deeply and earnestly imbued with an unshaken 

* Edinburgh Review,. June, 151.". p. 0o4. 1 Id 



MEMOIIl OF SPURZHE1M. 15 

belief in the importance and value of the doctrines he 
communicated. 

I listened to his second lecture, and I adopted his 
belief I was satisfied of the importance and value of 
those doctrines, and exulted in participating those 
treasures of knowledge, of whose enjoyment the Edin- 
burgh Review had well nigh overreached and swindled 
me. 

I listened to his third lecture, and perceived, with all 
the force of thorough conviction, that there was noth- 
ing of any value in the metaphysics of ancient or mod- 
em schools, except so far as they coalesced and amal- 
gamated with the new system. From that hour to the 
present, I have regarded the science with increasing 
confidence and unalterable devotion. More certain or 
more important truths the divine finger has not written 
in any of the pages of nature, than those which Spurz- 
heim, on tliis occasion, unfolded to our examination — 
our study — our admiration. 

He was attended by a large and intelligent class of 
both sexes, and consequently made many ardent con- 
verts to phrenology in this city. Indeed, whoever 
listened attentively to his lectures, must voluntarily or 
involuntarily, become a disciple. Of the numbers who 
received his instructions, I have personally known only 
three who were not convinced of the truth and value 
of his doctrines. 

In January, 1S16, he went to Cork, where he deliv- 
ered two courses. In a letter from that city he ob- 
serves : — c From the beginning the fair sex has been 



16 MEMOIR OF SPURZHE1M. 

favorable to our science: it is so in Cork. Very few 
of the medical profession think proper to be interested 
in our investigations, and prefer dinners and suppers to 
phrenology. The greater number of the gentlemen are 
occupied with mercantile speculations ; ladies, alone, 
turn their minds toward scientific pursuits. Those 
ladies who attended my first course of lectures are 
desirous of repeating the lesson, and are anxious that 
their friends may partake of tiieir satisfaction, so their 
will be done.' 

In February he returned to Dublin and delivered 
two concurrent courses, repeating in the evening the 
same lecture he had given in the morning. Many at- 
tended both ; and though the topics were the same, his 
language, manner, and illustrations varied so much, 
that his auditors felt unabated gratification whenever 
they heard him. 

In the beginning of March he left Ireland and arrived 
in Liverpool, where he remained two months, waiting 
for fine weather to visit the lakes of .Cumberland and 
Westmoreland. He found that the reviewers had 
formed the public opinion there as elsewhere. He 
however delivered a course to a small class, not ex- 
pecting to make an extensive impression, but merely 
to give a better opinion of the objects of phrenology, to 
those who attended his lectures. The leading men 
seemed to him to be governed by a mercantile spirit : 
and those who wished to be looked on as scientific, 
were too jealous to encourage knowledge which was 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 17 

not their own. He, however, left behind him in Liv- 
erpool, many attached and immutable friends to his 
science and himself. 

In May he visited the public institutions of Man- 
chester and Lancaster, and felt great delight in viewing 
the lakes of Lancashire, Westmoreland, and Cumber- 
land. In June he made an extensive tour in Scotland, 
by Glasgow, Dumbarton, Inverness, Banff, Aberdeen, 
Perth, and Stirling, to Edinburgh. During his excur- 
sion he dwelt with pleasure on the lakes, vallies, and 
mountains; but the inhabitants of the Highlands en- 
grossed the greatest share of his attention. * Scotland,' 
he says, ' contains several races of inhabitants. The 
genuine highlanders, are. entire feelings: accordingly, 
I would consider them as the warmest friends, or the 
most dangerous enemies, always acting by strong feel- 
ings. They have adhesiveness, combativeness, de- 
structiveness, secretiveness, self-esteem, approbation, 
firmness, and individuality strong: many have cautious- 
ness. The upper part of the forehead is mostly nar- 
row: tune is good — order is almost wanting, of this I 
have seen many confirmations.'* 

On the 24th of June he arrived at Edinburgh ; that 
city which was then up in arms against his doctrines 5 
but is now the strongest of the fortresses leagued in 
their defence. He brought with him many letters of 
introduction, and amongst them one addressed to Doc- 
tor Gordon, the head of the party against him, and the 

* In his letters, Spurzheim specified the organs by their num 
bers ; for sake of perspicuity I have preferred giving their name, 
o 



18 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

well-known writer of that article in the Edinburgh Re- 
view, which so cruelly and unjustly maligned himself, 
his principles, and his science. 

' Generally speaking,' he says, ' I am very politely 
received by every one to whom I am introduced. 
There are parties ; but I shall not interfere with any 
one. I wish to know them all, and shall make it a pe- 
culiar business to study their individual characters. I 
was naturally anxious to face my conscientious review- 
er. The first day I presented myself at his door, he 
was out. The servant advised me to come back on 
the next morning, between ten and eleven o'clock. I 
was there at ten. He again was out. On the third 
day, at nine o'clock in the morning I found him. In 
reading the letter of introduction he kept good coun- 
tenance. Then he feigned not to know me at all, sup- 
posed me to be quite a stranger in Edinburgh, and 
asked whether I had never been before in this town ? 
He could not bear my facing him, and was evidently 
embarrassed. I put him at his ease, as much as I 
could ; spoke of the institutions, the university, the 
plan of teaching, &x.' 

'The next morning I breakfasted at Dr. Thomp- 
son's, whose partner he is. He came there, but more 
embarrassed than when I saw him at his house. He 
feels his bad conscience. I shall see how far he will 
mend. His partner, who has certainly contributed 
to the review, is an old fox, and may have escaped 
other snares. He knoies better to keep countenance. 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHE1M. 19 

I attend the lectures of both. I shall never "know the 
revieiver ; but keep every where the same free and 
open language, and provoke him to appear if he like 
truth.' 

* I had also an interview with Jeffrey, the editor. 
I was introduced to him at the hall of the Courts. He 
asked me whether I was a stranger in Edinburgh? 
Whether I had come from London? and, whether I 
intended to make a long stay here? Yes! to give to 
ihe Edinburghers opportunity to learn what I main- 
tain. He replied: To instruct them. I merely say, 
to show what I maintain. He: We are infidel incredu- 
lous. /: In natural history there is no belief. 
We must see the things. Then he was called off 
to plead. Hence our conversation was short, but long 
enough to see that he is a rogue* with self-conceit. 
He has a fine forehead, combativeness, covetiveness, 
secretiveness, self-esteem ; not much cautiousness, and 
less approbation, firmness, and ideality. I shall see 
more of him. The melo-drame has only begun. Its 
evolution requires time ; at the end I shall give you a 
description of the scenes.' 

He kept his word. The next scene was his triumph 
over his reviewer, by proving in the presence of him- 
self and his class, and the most eminent members of 
the Faculty in Edinburgh, the truth and importance of 
his anatomical discoveries. 

* In Spurzheim's language this merely means an adept in the 
savoir faire. 



20 MEMOIR OF SPURZHE1M. 

' From the beginning,' says Spurzheim, ' I request- 
ed these gentlemen not to lose an opportunity of get- 
ting a brain. The partner of the reviewer, surgeon of 
the Military Hospital, furnished me with arms to com- 
bat them in their own lecture-room. Indeed I could 
never have expected such a gratification. The whole 
happened accidentally, but I could not wish it more 
favorably. I gave notice to a few of my friends that 
the opposite party might not be alone. The reviewer 
was to lecture at two to his class. I intended to cease, 
and continue after ; but he was so kind as to yield his 
hour to me; so that I had the pleasure of demonstrat- 
ing the brain to his own class at his lecture table in 
presence of himself, Drs. Thompson, Barclay, Duncan, 
jun., Trwin, Emery, and many others.' 

' There could not have been a better brain ; every 
thing was clear and satisfactory. The poor reviewer 
was in the most disagreeable predicament. However, 
as I was at his table I did not wish to appear unpolite. 
I did not mention him ; and it was not necessary, as he 
was known to the audience. I only stated: This is 
denied , and then made the preparation. We are ac- 
cused of such a thing, or blamed for showing such or 
such a stucture. And then I presented the structure 
in nature. At the same time I had our plates at hand, 
and asked the audience, whether they represented the 
preparations, as I had made them. The answer was 
always affirmative.' 

1 The reviewer avoids me entirelv. After the lee- 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 21 

ture he went immediately to his little room. His 
partner spoke to me, and mentioned that now he will 
study our plates.' 

1 You perceive by this that I have taken a strong 
position, and am no longer on the defensive. My 
friends, who are in opposition to the reviewer's party, 
tell the story every where ; and I continue to invite 
every one to procure me an opportunity of showing 
what we maintain. As to the anatomy, complete vic- 
tory is no longer doubtful, because competent judges 
were present ; and with that gratification I shall begin 
to speak to the public in November. The poor re- 
viewer, as Physiologist, can scarcely avoid to come. 
I shall invite him, and he must be prepared to undergo 
a severe discipline. I certainly shall provoke him to 
appear, if he like candor and truth. I was right in 
shovying, at my lectures in Dublin, a form of head 
which could not be that of my reviewer. He has too 
much self-esteem, approbation, firmness, and secre- 
tiveness ; but not sufficient of cautiousness and com- 
parison.' 

' Instead of retracting, he thinks he can make be- 
lieve that his Review is true. In conformity with the 
Review, he opposed my demonstration, and denied 
what others admitted, and disputed about words and 
definitions. The battle was quite unique. He lost 
his temper, while I remained calm. He ascribed to 
me things which I had never maintained. I was 
twice obliged to provoke him to show where he had 



22 MEMOIR OF SPURZttEIM. 

read his proposition. He looked for the meaning in 
my book ; and, instead of finding it, found its opposite.' 

c The ground on which I actually stand (23d Sep- 
tember, 1816) is much more solid than I had expect- 
ed. I was prepared to be much longer afloat in this 
city ; but, I can assure you, it was very easy to take a 
strong position. From what I have done, the greatest 
curiosity is excited. The unfavorable impression 
which the reviewer had propagated is mostly removed 
from this place. Our doctrine is no more quackery or 
trash ; on the contrary, there is more anxiety here to 
become acquainted with it, than in any other city of 
the united kingdoms. Since I left Germany, I have 
not observed a greater enthusiasm. I have far the 
greatest number in favor. Only Doctor Gordon and 
his satellites are opposed to me.' 

' 1 have dissected the brain on various occasions, 
and the anatomy is now admitted by Professor Monro, 
Drs. Barclay, Rutherford, Saunders, Duncan, Aber- 
crombie, Bell, Pryce, and hundreds of inferior weight 
in anatomy. I have also given six lectures on the 
physiological and philosophical part, to show what the 
thing is, and not what it has been represented ; and I 
have quite attained my object. -I had made it known 
only among friends ; but the number of the audience 
increased every day, so that in the sixth lecture, Dr. 
Barclay's lecture-room was scarcely large enough. 
They stood even to the staircase.' 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 23 

1 1 am on friendly terms with almost all the profes- 
sors ; but Gordon has placed himself in such a situa- 
tion, that he can no more attend my lectures : he is 
known as the reviewer, and I shall treat him with the 
greatest freedom and openness. I showed here, in 
one of the six lectures, the two heads with the anti-re- 
viewer form, which I exhibited in Dublin, and provok- 
ed the reviewer to appear, and show that he is blest 
with such a con6guration. When speaking of pride, I 
stated that my reviewer must have that organ large, 
and wished that he might prove the contrary, by pro- 
ducing his own head. They all applauded this obser- 
vation.' 

Before he left Edinburgh he delivered two public 
courses, which were received with great approbation 
by the numerous auditors that attended them. Amongst 
them, however, was not to be found the reviewer, or 
any of his satellites. ■ None of them,' says Dr. Spurz- 
heim, ( bad candor enough to look at the proofs which 
I submit to the judgment of my auditors. It seems 
the opponents find it more easy to deny than to ex- 
amine.' 

In the midst of the anatomical contests he thought 
that the readiest mode to put an end to the misrepre- 
sentations of Dr. Gordon, and, at the same time, fix 
the attention, and guard against the misconception of 
his auditors, would be to publish a prospectus of the 
anatomical propositions maintained by himself and Gall. 
This was accordingly done, and produced the most 



24 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

beneficial results: Gordon was instigated by his friends, 
and particularly by Jeffrey, to comment on this pros- 
pectus in a pamphlet — not as a nameless reviewer, but 
under the overwhelming authority of his own formida- 
ble name. Spurzheim, however, was not overcome, 
but gave him a decisive and satisfactory reply before he 
left Edinburgh, in a pamphlet which he entitled c Ex- 
amination of the Objections made in Britain against the 
Doctrines of Gall and Spurzheim.' In a letter on this 
subject, Spurzheim observes that Gordon did not in his 
pamphlet defend the statements he advanced in the 
Edinburgh Review, but employed his principal force to 
prove that they had no claim to originality ; and that 
their ideas of the anatomy of the brain, were known a 
hundred and fifty years ago. Spurzheim adds, that his 
answer was considered in Edinburgh as quite satis- 
factory. 

Before he took his final departure from that city, he 
honored Dugald Stewart with a visit. He waited on 
him with an introductory letter at his country resi- 
dence; but Dugald Stewart refused to receive this 
distinguished visiter. He probably, however, lived to 
regret that he had suffered his petulance or prejudice, 
in an unhappy moment, to so far diminish the magni- 
tude and weight of his long-established character, in 
the indignant regard of this high-minded man. 

During his stay in Scotland he was anxious to see 
James Mitchell, of Nairne, in Morayshire, of whom 
Dugald Stewart has given an account, and who was 
born blind and deaf. l I would not miss the opportu- 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 25 

nity,' says Dr. Spurzheim, c of comparing his organiza- 
tion with the previous manifestations of his mind, which 
cannot be considered as the result of education, but 
of internal impulse and intuitive reflection. You may 
conceive that I have derived great pleasure from finding 
his organization conformable to the manifestations of 
his mind. He is intelligent and good-natured ; so is 
the brain. The coronal part is more developed than 
behind the ears. He has adhesiveness, destructiveness, 
secretiveness, approbation, benevolence, comparison, 
and causality strong. Self-esteem and cautiousness 
are less. Destructiveness is active under opposition, 
or if he likes to get rid of any thing. When he has got 
new clothes, of which he is very fond, he has torn the 
old ones and thrown them into a river, in order to 
prevent his relatives to give them to him again. In 
short, there are many facts which prove the activity of 
the organs I have mentioned. I had, twice, long con- 
versations with his sister, who takes so great pains in 
his treatment ; and I was three hours with Mitchell 
himself. He is twenty years of age, and stout. 5 

I have dwelt thus long on Dr. Spurzheim's visit to 
Scotland, because that visit was the cause of perma- 
nently establishing his doctrines in the British islands, 
and more widely diffusing them over other regions. It 
was in Edinburgh he had the good fortune to meet Mr. 
Combe — to convince him of the truth of his science, 
and to leave him not only an enthusiastic disciple, but 
a practical and skilful master and teacher of phre- 



26 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

nology. Since we have lost Spurzheim, he is now the 
main buttress and support of this noble edifice. He 
was the first to establish a phrenological society in his 
native city, and to contribute to the establishment of 
similar societies elsewhere. They have been numer- 
ous in the British empire, on the Continent, and in 
America, and have even reached Van-Diemen's Land, 
almost our antipodes. They were requisite in the in- 
fancy of the science. In a little time it will flourish, 
like astronomy and chemistry, without adventitious 
assistance. Under his auspices also the phrenological 
journal has greatly advanced the interests of this sci- 
ence — and his convincing and powerful writings, have 
left the adversaries of phrenology little now to object, 
and its friends little more to desire. 

On Spurzheim T s return to London, after a little 
repose, which was necessary after so much excitement 
and so many conflicts, he resumed his lectures, and 
delivered alternate courses in the city, and west end of 
the town, which were well attended. His permanent 
residence w T as in Foley-place, Portland-street. But he 
frequently accepted invitations to lecture in the larger 
towns of England, and wherever he lectured he grafted 
a durable and flourishing scion. 

He occasionally visited Paris, and permanently (as 
he then conceived) settled there in the year 1S1-. 
For at this juncture he married Mademoiselle Perier ; 
and so attached were her relatives to this amiable man, 
that they induced him to make that city his biding 



MEiMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 27 

place. At that period the press of France was com- 
paratively free, and the progress of truth, if not encour- 
aged by the government, was at least not repressed. 
He delivered his lectures to large and attentive classes, 
and was prosperous, comfortable, and happy. Mrs. 
Spurzheim was a pleasing, accomplished, and valuable 
woman. Those beautiful drawings which Spurzheim 
exhibited at his lectures were the production of her 
pencil. In the year 1820 I had the gratification of 
witnessing their prosperity, comfort, and happiness, at 
their hospitable mansion in the Rue de Richelieu, in 
Paris. But their enjoyments were not long permitted 
to continue. The Jesuits contrived to mine their way 
to a predominating influence with the French govern- 
ment — the liberty of the press was curtailed — and pub- 
lic lectures were forbidden without a state license. 
But discussions^ whether political, scientific, or religious^ 
are equally unpalatable to the Jesuits; and at that 
period (1822) the Jesuits governed the government. 

By the law as it then stood, Spurzheim might have 
lectured to a class of twenty individuals ; but he was 
refused a license to instruct a larger class. I do not 
know how long he struggled with this oppression ; but 
during his residence in Paris, he published his c Ob- 
servations sur la Phrenologie ou la Connaissance mo- 
rale et intellectuelle, fondee sur les fonctions du Sys- 
teme Nerveux.' This was in 1818. In 1S20, he 
published his c Essai Philosophique sur la nature mo- 
rale et intellectuelle de l'horame;' but for a few years he 



28 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

distributed his time, as circumstances induced him, be- 
tween France and England. 

In May, 1826, he writes from his residence, Gower- 
street, London, 'The pleasure to see you and my 
friends in Dublin is postponed. I return to France for 
the present, and am willing to pay a visit to Dublin at 
the beginning of the next winter, if a class can be as- 
sured. If this be impossible, 1 remain in England. 
Here the progress of Phrenology is extraordinary. I 
have lectured at the London Institution to such an au- 
dience as never before was brought together by any 
scientific subject.' 

In the interval which he divided between Paris and 
London he published several works in the English lan- 
guage : his essay on the prmci ucaticn, Phi- 
losophical principles of Phrenology, Observations on 
Insanity, Sketch of the natural Laws of Man, Anatomy 
of the Brain and Nerves, and other smaller works, 
some of which have passed through more editions than 
one. His great work on Phrenology had arrived at its 
third edition in 1825. 

In 1S27, he lectured at Cambridge, where he was 
received with distinguished respect. The use of the 
public lecture-rooms of the University were granted to 
him by the Vice-Chancellor. But the liberality of 
Cambridge has become proverbial as contrasted with 
the moody and bigoted spirit of her learned sister. 

He also lectured with the most triumphant succ 
at Bath, Bristol, and Hull ; and from the last men- 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 29 

tioned town continued his journey to Edinburgh, 
where he arrived, by invitation, in the first week of 
January, 1828. He was accompanied by Mrs. Spurz- 
heim. 

On this occasion his reception formed a strong con- 
trast to that which he had experienced eleven years 
before. There was no longer the smile of incredulity, 
or the watchful look, eager to pounce on the expected 
blunder, extravagance, or absurdity ; but all was sin- 
cere respect, profound attention, and anxious cordiality. 
He delivered two general courses ; and a third confined 
to the anatomy and pathology of the Brain ; and on 
those several occasions his classes were numerous, 
respectable, and intelligent. 

But the most gratifying incident accompanying this 
visit, was a dinner given in honor of Dr. Spurzheim, 
by the Phrenological Society, on Friday, the 25th of 
January. The enthusiasm of that day will not readily 
be forgotten by those who had the happiness of being 
present. The most conspicuous were Mr. Combe, 
Sir George Stewart Mackenzie, the Honorable David 
Gordon Haliburton, Mr. Neill, and Mr. Simpson, all 
active, energetic, laborious, devoted phrenologists. 

Powerful must have been the impression when Mr. 
Combe, the president of the day, proposed the health 
of Dr. Spurzheim ; and avowed the pleasure he took 
in repeating that he owed every thing he possessed in 
the science to him ; that his lectures fixed his wan- 
dering conceptions, and directed them to the true 
4* 



30 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

study of man. But where is the phrenologist whose 
heart does not respond to his glowing asseveration, 
that were he at that moment offered the wealth of 
India, on the condition that phrenology should be 
blotted from his mind for ever, he would scorn the 
gift ; nay, that were every thing he possessed in the 
world placed on one hand, and phrenology in the 
other, and that he were required to choose one, phre- 
nology, without a moment's hesitation, would be pre- 
ferred. 

Perhaps Spurzheim's happiness was at its height, 
when he heard the eloquent lips of his friend thus con- 
tinue his eulogium — ' How would we rejoice to sit at 
table with Galileo, Harvey, or Newton, and pay them 
the homage of our gratitude and respect ; and yet we 
have the felicity to be now in company with an indi- 
vidual whose name will rival theirs in brilliancy and 
duration ; to whom ages unborn will look with fond 
admiration as the first great champion of this magnifi- 
cent discovery; as the partner in honor, in courage, 
and in toil, with Dr. Gall ; as the rival in genius of 
him by whose master-mind the science of man started 
into existence.' 

But a burst of sympathizing plaudits accompanied 
his words as he proclaimed ' Dr. Spurzheim, my 
friends, is an historical personage ; — a glory dwells on 
that brow which will never wax dim, and which will 
one day illuminate the civilized world. His greatness 
is all moral and intellectual. Like the sun of a long 



MEMOIR OF SPUR2I1E1M. 31 

and resplendent day, Spurzheim> at his rising, was ob- 
scured by the mists of prejudice and envy ; but, in 
ascending, he has looked down upon and dispelled 
them. His reputation has become brighter and bright- 
er as men have gazed upon and scrutinized his doc- 
trines and his life. No violence and no anguish tar- 
nish the laurels that flourish on his brow. The recol- 
lections of his labors, are all elevating and ennobling ; 
and in our applause he hears not the voice of a vain 
adulation, but a feeble overture to a grand strain of 
admiration which a grateful posterity will one day sound 
to his name.' 

Striking, impressive, and affecting was Dr. Spurz- 
heim's reply. ' I never felt so much the want of men- 
tal powers necessary to express the gratification and 
gratitude I feel. This day is for me a day of joy, 
which I never hoped to see. My joy would be com- 
plete were Dr. Gall amongst us. Dr. Gall and myself 
often conversed together about the future admission 
of our doctrines. Though we relied with confidence 
on the invariable laws of the Creator, we, however, 
never expected to see them in our life time admitted 
to such a degree as they actually are. I often placed 
my consolation in man being mortal, or in future 
generations, to whom it is generally reserved to take up 
new discoveries. But we are more fortunate.' 

I cannot dismiss this most convivial and interesting of 
meetings without adverting to an incident that places 
in a strong light, the high respect and affectionate esti- 



32 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM* 

mation with which women were regarded by this 
amiable man. The vice-president, Mr. Simpson, in a 
speech at once humorous, earnest, and philosophic, in 
commendation of the sex, particularly that portion of 
them who had the sagacity to perceive, and the good 
sense to embrace the truths of phrenology, concluded 
by proposing 'with all the honors, the health of Mrs. 
Spurzheim, and all the Matrons and all the Maids who 
devote themselves heart and soul to Phrenology.' Dr. 
Spurzheim rose and said, 'Mr. Chairman — Gentlemen 
— As Mrs. Spurzheim has had the honor to be named 
at the head of the females who study Phrenology, I 
think it is incumbent upon me to thank you in her name. 
There can be no doubt among phrenologists, that the 
minds of ladies should be cultivated as well as ours, to 
fit them for their social relations and duties. With 
respect to Phrenology in particular, I am convinced 
that among an equal number of ladies and gentlemen, 
a greater number of the former, are fitted to become 
practical phrenologists: that is, to become able 
to distinguish the different forms and sizes of the head 
in general, and of its parts in particular. The reason 
seems to be, because girls and women, from the earliest 
age, exercise the intellectual powers of configuration 
and size, more than boys and men, in their daily occu- 
pations.' 

1 You have already "done justice to those mothers 
whose influence has been great on the education of 
their children. It is also evident, that ladies may great- 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 33 

ly contribute to the diffusion of phrenology in society, 
and may make frequent use of it in practical life. But 
if ladies do render service to phrenology, this science 
will also be of great advantage to them — I may say, of 
the greatest advantage, after Christianity. The 
fate of women is very unfortunate amongst savage and 
barbarous tribes ; and their condition was very hard in 
the Jewish dispensation, since every man was permit- 
ted to give a bill of divorce to his wife, if it was his 
good pleasure to dismiss her; whilst Christianity 
re-established the law as it was from the creation. — 
Phrenology teaches us to appreciate women, as well as 
men, according to their personal merit of talent and 
virtue. You may daily observe that boys resemble 
rather their mother than their father in mental dispo- 
sitions ; and it is known that great men generally 
descend from intelligent mothers. 5 

These observations contain a sufficient refutation of 
the heartless and ill-sustained sarcasm with which his 
memory has been assailed by a foreign pretender to 
phrenological acumen, who maintains, with as much 
presumption as if he had been daily in his society, that 
8 in his youth, manhood, and advanced age, Doctor 
Spurzheim showed, if not an aversion, at least a sort 
of indifference for the fair sex.'* c And as for his 
fondness, attachment, and love for his wife,' this skilful 
phrenologist is willing to ascribe them to his conscien- 
tiousness, self-esteem, approbation, veneration, acquisi- 

* The Lancet, No. 489, p. 496. 



34 MEMOIR OF SPURZHE1M. 

tiveness, or any other cause, rather than his kind, 
disinterested, and affectionate dispositions — his fervent 
and cordial adherence to those who were worthy of his 
friendship or love. 

During the sixteen years in which I had the happi- 
ness of knowing him, I had many occasions to witness 
his value for women, and the pleasure he derived from 
their conversation and society ; and this also I witnessed 
— that the pleasure was reciprocal. Spurzheim had no 
aversions — or, if he had, they were reserved for affec- 
tation, presumption, hypocrisy, and vice : whatever 
shape they might assume, male, feminine, or angelic, 
his very nature would intuitively have recoiled from 
their contact. 

His character was manly, decided, and bold ; yet 
this empty defamer has dared to stigmatize him as a 
coward: he had ' little physical courage/ forsooth.* 
His physical courage was at least on a level with that 
of the generality of men ; but as to his moral courage, 
his firmness and resolution, few indeed were his equals. 
He excelled in that true and genuine spirit of fortitude 
and heroism, which is not participated with the brutes, 
but is peculiar to mankind. 

In the same gossipping and disparaging temper, this 
writer avers that Dr. Spurzheim was inclined to acquire 
wealth, and was not eminently generous ; but to this 
it may justly be replied, that little was the wealth he 
acquired ; and that, without the means, it was scarcely 

• The Lancet. No. 489, p. 4: 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 35 

in his power to be eminently generous. From my 
own knowledge I can assert, that he was eminently 
kind-hearted and eminently hospitable : but the inac- 
curacy of one anecdote of this eulogist leads me to 
doubt the authenticity of the rest. He states, that in 
1824, Dr. Spurzheim married, and that he was then 
advanced in age. He married near six years before 
this period ; and he had not reached his 42d year. — 
True he had then no pretensions to youth ; but he 
was not advanced in age. The words almost imply 
decrepitude. 

But it is amusing to contemplate the display of gro- 
tesque and ludicrous self-sufficiency, and vanity, with 
which this accomplished phrenologist delivered a 
lecture on his own proper cranium ; and found it 
bursting at all points with every rare excellency, and 
even its deficiencies constituting perfections ; # yet in 
his lecture on Spurzheim 's, — one of the most perfect 
of heads, — it shrunk, under his hands, into all that was 
little, and weak, and mean, and pusillanimous. Hap- 
pily he affords us a clue to his adjudications, in his 
candid admission, that though he felt only obstinacy 
towards Gall, to Spurzheim he experienced aversion. f 

But why, it may be asked, have these miserable 
detractions, which cannot outlive the detractor, been 
suffered to intrude upon the harmony and conviviality 
of the happy feast we have just been enjoying ? I am 
tempted to blot them out, as of no worth or interest ; 
* See the Lancet, No. 483. p. 319. t Id. id. p. 318. 



36 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

but perhaps they ought to be retained, as a curious 
record of the last effort of malignity which shall assail 
the character of this illustrious man. 

A circumstance of much more interest is, that, in 
the course of a few months after this memorable day — 
that day on which Spurzheim declared that his joy 
would have been complete had Gall been present to 
participate with him, in the most intellectual city of 
the British dominions, the gratification of witnessing, 
what he never expected to enjoy in his life-time, the 
triumphant reception of his novel doctrines — in six 
months after that day, on the 22d of August, 1 8 
terminated the invaluable life of the Founder of Phre- 
nology. 

Imbued with the spirit of Spurzheim, and animated 
by the enthusiasm, the scenes I have described must 
have inspired, Mr. Combe visited Dublin in April, 
1829, and delivered a course of lectures which created 
a new fervor in the cause of phrenology. On occa- 
sion of that visit, and arising out of his exertions, this 
society was founded. At his departure, he earnestly 
recommended that Dr. Spurzheim should be invited 
to give his powerful assistance to the complete estab- 
lishment of the science in this city. He accepted 
the invitation ; but in consequence of the lamented 
death of his wife, he did not arrive until March, 1830. 
His friends found him much changed in appearance ; 
his equanimity was the same, but his recent loss had 
made considerable inroads on his health and strength. 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 37 

He, however, amply fulfilled the promises made by 
those who had known him, to those who were strangers 
to his extraordinary powers. He added many con- 
verts to the science, and increased the number of his 
personal friends ; but it must be confessed, that his 
class was but small when considered in reference to 
the immense numbers in this populous city, that ought 
to have had some little curiosity upon so new, so 
strange, and so all-important a subject. 

On this occasion, the Royal Irish Academy elected 
him an Honorary Member. In complimenting such a 
man, this body did more honor to themselves than to 
him. 

Another instance may be noticed of the high esti- 
mation in which he was held in Dublin. At a public 
dinner, to which he was invited by the Protestant Dis- 
senting Congregations of Strand-street and Eustace- 
street, General Cockburn in the chair, his health was 
proposed by the Rev. Dr. Drummond, after some 
prefatory observations to the following effect : — 

' Though we subscribe to no human authority in 
questions of religion, we know how to appreciate the 
sanction of great names, and cannot help attaching 
some value to such of our opinions as are approved by 
those giants of intellect, who adorn human nature and 
illuminate the world. If he who unfolded the true 
system of the universe, and established the truth of 
that system on principles of mathematical demonstra- 
tion — if he who has made such profound researches 
5 



38 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

into the philosophy of mind, as to have distanced all 
his precursors in that department of inquiry — and if he, 
again, who has soared highest in the " heaven of inven- 
tion," 

" Into the heaven of heavens, who has presumed, 
An earthly guest, and drawn empyreal air" — 

if the greatest of natural philosophers, of metaphysi- 
cians, and of poets, when they brought their great 
mental powers to the examination of certain religious 
questions, arrived at the same conclusions as we have 
reached ourselves, — we think that those conclusions 
derive from them a beauty, a lustre, a degree of cer- 
tainty not to be lightly esteemed. The opinions of 
such mighty master-minds as Newton, Locke, and 
Milton, in doctrines of theology, are the more to be 
prized, when we consider that, in them, they could be 
the result only of conviction — and that they were em- 
braced in opposition to the prejudices of their own 
education, and to the prevailing, the established, and 
fashionable doctrines of their age. And should any 
new science spring up, and come like another revela- 
tion from heaven to pour light on the world of mind — 
to penetrate the dark recesses of thought — to display 
all the exquisite machinery of the brain — to tread the 
labyrinth of intellect, and unfold the matchless wisdom 
and benevolence of the Creator in the constitution of 
man ; should such a science ever appear, and should 
its great expounder and demonstrator be seen among 
us, I dare venture to affirm, that he would have a just 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 39 

claim to be classed with those illustrious sages who 
have been named — a claim founded not less on his 
having the same exalted ideas of God and of all moral 
and religious truth, than on his being animated by the 
same sublime spirit of philosophy — yes ; he would be 
a congenial spirit — a kindred star in their magnificent 
constellation. Such a science has appeared ! — such a 
man is among us ! — and you already anticipate the 
name oi the esteemed and eloquent advocate and 
founder of that unlooked-for science, Dr. Spurzheim, 
who this day honors our company by his presence.' 

The health of Dr. Spurzheim was drank with every 
demonstration of cordiality and respect, by the nume- 
rous and most respectable company assembled on this 
occasion. In returning thanks, his natural character 
singularly displayed itself when he observed — that 
though he seldom addressed speeches to convivial 
parties, yet he could not refrain, on the present occa- 
sion, from expressing the high satisfaction he enjoyed, 
to meet so many intelligent minds engaged in the 
noblest of all pursuits — the pursuit of truth. ' This 
augurs well,' said he, ' for the future improvement and 
progressive amelioration of mankind. Such minds are 
now found in every civilized country. Men are gradu- 
ally acquiring courage to burst the trammels of error, 
ignorance, and prejudice. The human intellect is 
awakened to the investigation of truth throughout all 
the regions of politics and religion, physical science 
and mental philosophy.' 



40 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

c Genuine philosophy and genuine religion are very 
nearly akin. The one explores the elder volume of 
nature; the other investigates the later volume of Di- 
vine Revelation. Both unite in their practical results; 
both promote the present improvement of man ; both 
conduce to his ultimate felicity. Without attaching 
myself particularly to any of the religious denominations 
in the British Islands, I cannot but express my appro- 
bation of the liberal and enlightened views of that class 
to which the present meeting belongs. I admire their 
universal good will ; I admire their fearless and zealous 
pursuit of truth ; I admire their patient forbearance 
amidst calumny and misrepresentation. These must 
gain them the respect even of their opponents; these 
prove that they have caught the i k and s;eneroua 
spirit of Him, whose religion it is their object and end 
to vindicate from all corruption and abuse. May you 
prosper and be happy!' 

He went from Dublin, by invitation, to Belfast. His 
class was but small ; but he says, ' I am accustomed 
to take things as they present themselves; in this way 
I am never deceived in my expectation. They say 
that the season is unfavorable, since many families are 
gone to the country ; yet I must say, that the influen- 
tial men here, behaved with great liberality towards me, 
in offering the Lecture-room at the Academical Institu- 
tion. I also believe that all the medical men of note, 
all the literary characters of Belfast, and the leading 
divines, as Dr. Bruce, Mr. Montgomery, and Dr. 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 41 

Cooke attend my lectures. Hence the seed which I 
sow here will not fall on mere rocks. The interest 
they take seems to increase in proportion as I go on. 
I am anxious to see whether Dr. Drummond* will 
break off in the midst as he intended, and told me he 
would do.' 

I preserve this little trait of vanity, as a curious in- 
mate in so mighty a mind ; and I trust it was gratified 
to its fullest extent, by finding that. Dr. Drummond 
could not possibly break off in the middle of a course 
of Dr. Spurzheim's. 

This was in the beginning of June, 1830. He re- 
turned to London, and travelled to Paris before the 
end of the month. There, to use his own expressions, 
he found an opportunity of gratifying his Eventuality, 
during July, August, and September. He witnessed 
the revolution which placed Philip on the throne of the 
French. 

In November he returned to England, and delivered 
a course of lectures in Liverpool. But there was then 
all the turmoils of a contested election in that town ; 
and people were too busy with politics, to attend with 
much interest to phrenology. From thence he went 
to Oxford; but spiritual pride and learned ignorance 
were as detrimental to the cause of truth in that seat 
of the Muses, as passion and party feeling in commer- 
cial Liverpool. His own words are remarkable : i I 
intended to lecture in December at Oxford ; but the 

* James Drummond, Esq. M. D. 

5* 



42 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

Vice-Chancellor did not seem to approve of my doing 
so. I asked for his worshipful permission by letter, — 
but he gave an evasive answer, not allowing or refusing, 
but advising me not to lecture, since I might not meet 
with the encouragement I might expect. I replied, 
that his permission was the only encouragement I want- 
ed ; but he did not think proper to give either a refusal 
or the permission: he remained silent. How happy 
we are that priestcraft has no more power. — Oxford 
does in IS30 what the Jesuits did in 1822, and the 
Austrian government in 1802. The signs of the times, 
however, are strong ; but the clergy will be satisfied 
only where they command.'* 

He passed the remainder of the month with some 
attached friends in Liverpool, Manchester, and Derby 
— and in January delivered a course at the Literary 
Institution in Bath. 

The Phrenological Society of Dublin was desirous 
to profit by the impression made by Dr. Spurzheim's 
late course ; and such numbers had been wailing their 
misfortune in not having availed themselves of his in- 
structions on that occasion, that the Society thought it 
was imperatively called upon to request another visit 
from Dr. Spurzheim. He accepted the invitation, and 
arrived in April, 1831. 

Numbers of these wailers and procrastinators lost 

* It is proper to observe, that the refusal was the act of the 
individual Vice-Chancellor at that time (Jenkins). Htfl 
not long afterwards gave permission to Mr. Crook to lecture on 
Phrenology at Oxford. — Ph. Jour, 



MEMOIR OF SPUUZHE1M. 43 

this last opportunity, and may now wail that they have 
lost it for ever. It is those who have most leisure who 
generally fling away their time. It was the busy, the 
active, the industrious and laborious — those whose very 
minutes are counted and allocated — that contrived to 
snatch their daily hour for those lectures; and well 
were they repaid. — Treasures of knowledge worth 
more than treasures of gold — unexpected truths, of 
more value than the unexplored diamonds of Golconda, 
were their reward. They now know what phrenology 
is, and how much it was misrepresented, and listen to 
the shallow and antiquated declaimers against this in- 
valuable system of mind and morals, as they would 
listen to an infidel in the truths of astronomy endeavor- 
ing to argue, that the sun turned round the earth, 
and that the earth stood still in the centre of the ecliptic. 
On this occasion Spurzheim delivered two courses 
of lectures — his general course, which was received 
with intense interest and frequent bursts of admiration, 
and a second shorter course, which was confined to 
the anatomy and pathology of the brain, with a cursory 
view of its physiology, intended for those students who 
had not the good fortune to attend his general course. 
Immense as was the mass of information communicated 
to his classes, it was obvious that his mind was over- 
flowing with a redundance of additional information on 
every topic on which he addressed them ; and that 
twelve lectures, though each extended to the duration 
of an hour and a half, were altogether inadequate to 



44 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

give a full vent to the results of his extensive expe- 
rience, vigilant observation, and powerful reflection. 
His course, like those on chemistry, natural philosophy, 
medicine, and moral philosophy, ought to have em- 
braced a period of months, instead of being contracted 
to the narrow span of two or three weeks. Of this, 
Doctor Spurzheim was fully sensible ; and at this time 
he was very desirous of being appointed Professor of 
Anthropology in one of the Universities. Indeed, his 
friends, for a considerable period, entertained the hope 
that the leading men of London College would have 
offered him the chair in that liberal institution — and 
who could have filled it with so much advantage to the 
public as this gifted and profound philosopher? 

Who, like him, could boast an intimate acquaintance 
with all those branches of science, of such inestimable 
value to mankind, that he had made the perpetual 
objects of rational, judicious, successful investigation ? 
Who, like him, had fathomed the depths of research in 
so many neglected and important regions of knowledge? 
— the indispensable conditions on which the improve- 
ment of the human race depends — the true and 
practical mode of educating our children, so as to 
cultivate every good, and repress every mischievous 
tendency of their nature — the national provisions, 
whether legislative or executive, necessary for the 
prevention of pauperism and crime — the practicability 
of reforming criminals, in every instance where means 
and motives can operate, and rendering, as a last 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 45 

resource, the utterly incorrigible of some utility to the 
state — of ascertaining the true nature of idiocy and 
insanity, and how far, in the latter, the excesses of the 
feelings and the aberrations of the intellect may be 
corrected — how our mind is constituted — how 
much, in its operations and affections, it is animal, 
how much it is human — how far we are bound by the 
trammels of necessity — how far we are free and 
accountable creatures — and lastly, the origin and 
sanction of our rights and duties, as rational, moral, 
and religious beings : thus comprehending the whole 
circle of considerations, mental and corporeal, physic- 
al and metaphysical, in which man has any moment- 
ous interest or concern. 

If this rational, just, and honorable step had been 
taken by any of our universities ; if, as was con- 
fidently expected, the London college had appointed 
him to the chair of Anthropology, the world might 
still have been in the enjoyment of the useful, enlight- 
ened and invaluable services of this wisest and best 
of men ; and, under his auspices, society might 
possibly have gained an advance of half a century or 
a century, in the general progress of improvement. 
But the college lost this splendid opportunity of 
acquiring instant and perpetual renown, and society an 
early accession of blessings unnecessarily deferred from 
the present to some future generation. 

Spurzheim left Ireland with a determination to 



46 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

devole the remainder of his days to the labors of this 
professorship, had the exertions of his friends in his 
favor proved successful. In the event of a disap- 
pointment, his intention was to bid adieu to England, 
and remain in quiet, unambitious comfort with the 
relatives of his late wife, in Paris. They were affec- 
tionately attached to him, particularly M. Perier, his 
brother-in-law — and M. Perier's residence was, in fact, 
his home. 

He had not been long settled in his new abode, 
when he received pressing invitations from various 
scientific bodies in Boston and other cities of the 
United States, to cross the Atlantic, for their instruc- 
tion in the true philosophy of mind. He could not 
resist so favorable an opportunity of doing good, and 
doing it to so vast an extent as seemed to be insured 
by such an invitation. He assented ; and resolved 
to visit America during the summer of 1832. 

He was always a sufferer from sea-sickness, even 
in the shortest voyages ; and to encounter a long one, 
with such a constitutional predisposition, required 
some magnanimity. In the spring of 1S3J. some 
friends of mine, who were greatly attached to Spurz- 
heim, visited him at Paris. He had, at that time, 
come to the determination of crossing to the United 
States ; and my friends were remonstrating with him 
on his imprudence, in braving the inconveniences 
and hazards of such a voyage, and asked him, what 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 47 

could possibly compensate him for all that he must 
necessarily endure ? His simple and emphatic reply 
was, ' Shall I not see Channing?' 

I trust he did see that distinguished and excellent 
man. The communion of two such minds, on any 
occasion, must bring peculiar gratifications to both — 
hut coming into collision so unexpectedly, and from 
such distant regions of the globe, they must have 
enjoyed a double portion of happiness. The first 
moment they met, their friendships must have been 
cemented for life : but life affords but a frail tenure to 
friendship or happiness. 

On the 20th of June, J 832, he sailed from Havre 
to New York, full of the hope of establishing his 
doctrines from Canada to the Floridas. ' He was to 
have lectured in all the towns : even the villages were 
preparing to invite him. 5 The good he would have 
done is incalculable. On the 17th of September, he 
commenced a general course of lectures in Boston. 
That city has not a population amounting to one-third 
of the population of Dublin ; yet his class was twice 
or thrice as numerous as any that ever listened to him 
here. It exceeded three hundred, and frequently 
amounted to double that number. It is with regret 
and shame I advert to the contrast. 

He lectured in Boston three evenings in the week ; 
and in the alternate evenings he lectured at Harvard 
University, Cambridge, a short distance from Boston. 
In the mornings he delivered occasional lectures to 



4S MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

the Medical Faculty, on the structure and uses of the 
brain; and such was the interest and admiration he 
excited, that his time was in constant demand. Added 
to these continued engagements, a peculiarly change- 
able climate had an unfavorable influence on his con- 
stitution. Sudden changes exposed him to cold ; and 
an incautious transition from a warm lecture-room to 
the evening air was attended with debilitating effects. 
This variety of causes brought on, at first, a slight in- 
disposition, which, if it had been attended to, might 
have been easily checked. Regarding his illness of 
less consequence than the delivery of his lectures, he 
exerted himself for several days; when prudence re- 
quired an entire cessation from labor. This was the 
fatal step. Cold produced fever ; and this imprudence 
settled the fever in the system. He was averse to all 
active medical treatment from the beginning, and re- 
sorted to the simplest drinks and mildest remedies. 
He was confined to his room about fifteen days ; in 
which time his disease assumed a more alarming as- 
pect until the 10th of November. At eleven o'clock 
at night, the world was deprived of this extraordinary 
man. 

1 The most skilful of the Medical Faculty in this 
city ' (continues the able and benevolent writer, from 
whom I have borrowed those details) w were unremit- 
ting in their attendance upon him; and we had two 
or three physicians with him constantly both day and 
night. The interest, the exertion, and the strong de- 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 49 

sire to save the life of so valuable a man, were deep 
and sincere in the hearts of his friends. All within the 
power and reach of feeble man was extended for his 
relief; but it was the will of Divine Providence that 
he should quit for ever the scene of his labor, love, and 
glory. 

1 His death has cast a gloom over our city. It is 
not lamented with the cold formality of the world. It 
produces grief of the most poignant character ; and it 
is expressed in the deepest tones of human affliction. 
Although he had been with us but a few weeks, his 
virtues and worth were known and acknowledged. 
His amiable manners, his practical knowledge, his 
benevolent disposition and purposes, his active and 
discriminating mind, all engaged the good opinions 
even of the prejudiced, and won the affections of the 
candid and enlightened.' 

On Saturday, the 17th of November, the last solemn 
offices were paid to this distinguished individual. 
Crowds attended him to his grave — no votary of sci- 
ence or lover of truth, in that enthusiastic metropolis, 
was absent — eulogies were pronounced* — requiems 
were sung. His body, which had been embalmed, 
lies enclosed in a leaden coffin, in one of the vaults of 
the beautiful cemetery of Mount Auburn ; and it is 

* I regret that the eulogy delivered on this remarkable occasion 
by Dr. Follen, and of which report speaks so highly, has not yet 
reached this country. I should have been desirous to have incor- 
porated, in my text, this splendid specimen of transatlantic elo- 
quence. 



50 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

intended to erect over his remains a monument to his 
memory. 

This ebullition of feeling and respect for departed 
excellence reflects the highest honor on the people of 
America. Their children will, through future ages, 
visit the tomb of Spurzheim, and shed tears of pride to 
the memory of their fathers. 

Never did there exist a philosopher more amply ac- 
complished (or the pursuit and promulgation of truth. 
Sanguine, energetic, laborious, and indefatigable in his 
researches — calm, patient, candid, and liberal in his 
discussions — plain, simple, unpretending, and warm- 
hearted in his manners — penetrating and sagacioi 
to his understanding, profound and various as to his 
acquirements, he was exquisitely fined to develop, 
illustrate, and establish his doctrines. No wonder that 
in every soil which he has visited he has planted this 
new scion of knowledge, and of every assemblage of 
his students created a circle of admirers and friends. 

The original discoverer of these novel truths will 
justly stand in the highest ranks as a philosopher; not 
only as being the first who struck out this undreamt of 
road to knowledge, but because he ventured to shake 
oft' the trammels of the schools, and was bold enough 
to declare, 4 This is truth, although it be 

ENMITY WITH THE PHILOSOPHY OF AGES.' But 

to him in celebrity is the man who adopted, wit] 
reserve or jealousy, the recent and unreccived dis 



MEMOIR OF SPURZIIE1M. 



eries of another — who dissipated the mists that dark- 
ened this new field of science — and showed, in the light 
of day, that they were useful and necessary propensities 
and affections, pure moral and intellectual powers, and 
not their occasional abuses and defects, which were the 
gifts of God to man. 

In reference to this distinguished individual, it has 

fbeen said, with great force and truth, 4 that phrenology 

s essentially the science of morals; and Spurzheirc 



practised the doctrines which he taught. He was em- 
inently virtuous, and uniformly denounced vice as the 
parent of misery. He had profound sentiments of reli- 
gion, in harmony with reason. He was simple in 
his tastes — eminently kind, cheerful, and liberal in 
his di -.position — capable of warm and enduring attach- 
ments, and, in his habits, temperate, active, and labo- 
rious.' 

It may be added, though of less importance, that 
he was tall and muscular, and of a large and powerful 
frame. His countenance was illuminated by his mind. 
It was open and generous, honest and benevolent ; — 
and one of his votaries has remarked, that his head 
afforded the finest specimen that could possibly be se- 
lected, to sustain the doctrine to which he had devoted 
his life. 

It will here be naturally asked, what new light has 
phrenology thrown upon the science of mind ; and in 
what respects has it altered or improved this branch 



52 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

of philosophy? But it will surprise many, and among 
them not a few phrenologists, to be told, that some of 
our profoundest metaphysical writers indulged in 
opinions not merely coalescing with the new doctrines, 
but actually identical with them, and corroborating with 
tenfold strength the truths of phrenology, as being dis- 
covered by a widely different mode of investigation — 
in which the philosopher merely watched and examined 
the phenomena of his own mind ; but never dreamt of 
extending his researches to the minds of other men or 
other animals — the material organs in which those 
minds reside, or the external forms created by the vari- 
ous powers and faculties of those minds. 

Many careless readers conceive, that when Locke 
disproved the existence of innate ideas, he rlso dis- 
proved the existence of innate powers, faculties, ten- 
dencies, dispositions, propensities, or by whatever other 
name they may be designated. But nothing can be 
more contrary to the views of Locke. He strongly 
insists on the existence of those powers in the mind, 
and maintains a plurality of them with as much liberal- 
ity as any phrenologist. I shall refer in the mar- 
gin to the most striking passages I have met with in 
his writings, on this point. 1 Other moral and meta- 
physical writers, before him and after him, also enter- 

1 Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding, 21st edition, 
I. 13,35. 11.325,331. 



MEMOIR OF SPURZ1IEIM. 53 

tained analagous opinions. I shall only refer to Lord 
Shaftesbury, 1 Hume, 2 Reid, 3 and Stewart. 4 

But Locke advanced a step still nearer to phrenology, 
when he maintained that the organs of thinking might 
be material^ Hartley's whole system is founded on 
the hypothesis that they are material. So also is 
Tucker's. 7 Hume, the most refined and sceptical of 
philosophers, seems most forcibly impressed with this 
opinion; 8 and Priestly, 9 and Reid, 10 though antagonists 
on other points, seem equally inclined to favor this. 

The abuse of our natural faculties is adverted to by 
Tucker, as if he were a phrenologist: 11 and the power 
of natural language is discussed in the same spirit by 
Reid in more passages than one. 12 

But to make still nearer approaches, the faculties of 
upwards of twenty of the organs, discovered in nature, 
by Gall and Spurzheim, have been described as innate 

1 Shaftesbury's Characteristics, I. 164, 353. 

2 Hume's Essays, 1809, II. 12, 48, 267, 361, 36G, 374. 

3 Reid's Essays, 1808, II. 77. III. 56, G^, 121, 124, 160, 166, 258, 
216, 266. 

4 Stewart's Elements, 4th ed. I. 24, 25. 

5 Locke, I. 86, 131, 133. II. note pp. 83, 88, 97, 285. 

6 Hartley on Man, 1791, I. 72. 

7 Tucker's Light of Nature, I. 13, 14, 21, 23, 89, 176, 206. 212. 
II. 7. III. 112, 376. IV. 19. VII. 234. ' . 

s Hume, II. 72. 

9 Priestly on Spirit and Matter, I. 46, 47, 118, 120. 

10 Reid, I. 367. 

11 Tucker, II. 391. 

12 Reid, II. 262. III. 190, 449. 

6* 



54 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

powers of the mind by various eminent metaphysicians, 
whose disciples, at the present day, perhaps disdain to 
adopt a system that their masters would, with few 
exceptions, from Locke to Reid inclusive, have hailed 
with joy, had they lived to see the day of Gall and 
Spurzheim. 

Conscientiousness has had the greatest number 
of supporters, under the name of the moral sense, moral 
feeling, conscience, sense of right, &c. I shall only 
refer to Bishop Warburton, 1 Hume,' Marmontel, 3 
Rousseau, 4 Tucker, 5 Dr. Hutcheson of Glasgow, 6 
Reid, 7 Dr. Gregory, 8 Dugald Stewart, 9 Dr. Thomas 
Browne, 10 the author of £ Clio, a discourse on taste,' ll 
and, what will scarcely be credited, the Edinburgh 
Reviewers themselves. 1 * 2 

Veneration, reverence, adoration, religious feeling, 
or by whatsoever other name it may be distinguished, 
has had many eminent supporters. Among the fore- 

1 Divine Legation of Moses, I. 233. 

2 Hume's Essays, II. 219, 248, 263, 339, 340, 341, 343, 346. 

3 CEuvres de Marmontel, III. 224. 

4 Les Confessions de Rousseau, Paris, 1822, IV. 1 

5 Tucker, II. 257, 266, 337. 
6 Reid's Essays, I. 347. 

Md. II. 21, 60, 350, 353. 354. :Wk 440. III. 2, 154, 228, 229. 
236, 240, 255, 370, 4J2. 414. 425. 443. 477. 

8 Dr. Gregory's Comparative View, 202. 

9 Stewart's Elements, 4th ed. I. 367. 

10 Browne's Philosophy of the Human Mind, Edinburgh, 1 
396, 397, 398, 400, 506, 536. 550. 

"Clio, 110, 113, 121. 

12 Edinburgh Review, March to June, 1- 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 55 

most is the renowned Columbus, who, though not a 
professed metaphysician, was yet one of the most pro- 
found of thinkers, and amongst the most astute and 
sagacious of the observers of nature. 1 Montesquieu 2 
also believed in the innateness of this sentiment, as did 
Warburton, 3 Hume, 4 Tucker, 5 the author of Clio, 6 
Gregory, 7 Kant, 8 and Davy. 9 

The innateness of Philoprogenitiveness is not 
without its advocates: — I may name Warburton, 10 
Hume, 11 Tucker, 12 Reid, 13 the author of c A Theory of 
Agreeable Sensations,' 14 and lastly, Dr. Thomas 
Browne; 15 nor Marvellousness, which is supported 
by Lord Shaftesbury, 16 in discoursing on the opinion of 
Lucretius upon this subject, Tucker, 17 Reid, 18 Fred- 

1 Washington Irving's Life of Columbus, I. 291. 

2 Warburton's Divine Legation, III. 356. 

3 Id. 1.314. III. 309, 311. 

4 Hume's Essays, II. 466. 

5 Tucker, VII. 276, 522. 

6 Clio, 110, 113,117. 

7 Gregory's Comparative View, 197. 

8 Aikin's Biography, Life of Kant. 

9 Davy's Last Days of a Philosopher, 10. 

10 Warburton, I. 259. 

11 Hume's Essays, II. 198, 354. 

12 Tucker, IV. 194. 

13 Reid, I. 56. III. 151. 

14 Theory of Agreeable Sensations, 109. 

15 Browne, 401, 442. 

16 Shaftesbury's Characteristics, I. 49. 

17 Tucker, V. 498. 

18 Reid, III. 115, 315. 



56 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

erick Schlegel, 1 and Browne. 2 Benevolence is 
advocated by Hume, 3 Reid, 4 and Browne. 5 Cau- 
tiousness, or prudence, by Tucker 6 and Browne. 7 

Self-esteem is maintained by Reid, 8 Madame de 
Stael, 9 and Browne. 10 Love of Approbation by 
Hume, 11 de Stael, 12 Browne, 1 " and the author of the 
theory above adverted to. 14 Hope byt he author of 
Clio. 15 Ideality by Dugald Stewart 10 and Browne. 17 
— Imitation by Reid ld and Browne. 10 Spa< 



I Schlegel's History of Literature, I. 135. 
- Browned Philosophy, i 

3 Hume's Essays, II. 

« Reid, Hi 

■ Browne, 

e Tucker, 11.297, \ 11. 581. 

7 Browne, 4l!>. 

8 Reid, III. 213. 

9 Madame de Stael on the Influence of the Passions. 
353. 

10 Browne, 398,412,416. 

II Hume's Essays, II. 3*27, 361. 
" De Stafil, 1 

13 Browne. 412, 455, 

w Theory of Agreeable Sensations, 90. 

W Clio, 1-28, 130. 

16 Stewart's Elements, I. 530. 

" Browne, 350. 377,403. 

»8Reid, II. 68. III. 111. 

19 Browne, 350. 

» Reid, I. 354. 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 57 

Time, 1 and Tune, 2 Individuality, 3 and Causal- 
ity, 4 by Reid ; and Comparison by Locke. 5 

Adhesiveness is supported by Warburton 6 and 
Browne; 7 Amativeness by Browne; 8 Combative- 
ness by Hume 9 and Browne; 10 Destructiveness 
by the author of * Theory of Agreeable Sensations,' 11 
by de Stael, 12 and Browne ; 13 Firmness by Tucker, 14 
and Acquisitiveness by Reid. 15 

Browne absolutely admits a faculty of equilibrium, 16 
which is identical with the phrenological faculty of 
weight; and if his principle of relative suggestion be 
not a component part of the mind, then to account for 
other phenomena which he discusses, the innate exist- 
ence must be inferred of individuality, 17 eventuality, 18 

1 Reid, I. 354. 

2 Id. II. 392. 

3 Id. 1.331. 11.256,396. 

4 Id. II. 295. III. 17, 41, 273, 277. 

5 Locke, II. 178, 244. 

6 Warburton, I. 320. 
? Browne, 402, 450. 

8 Id. 403. 

9 Hume's Essays, II. 309. 

10 Browne, 400, 419, 420. 

11 Theory, &c. 49, 88. 

12 De Stafil, 193. 

13 Browne, 399, 400, 480, 481. 
"Tucker, 11.304. 

15 Reid, III. 431, 439. 

16 Browne, 433. 

17 Id. 289. 

18 Id. id. 



5S 



MEMOIR OF SPUUZIIEIM. 



comparison, 1 causality, 2 number, 3 size, 4 form, 5 color, 6 
and space, 7 in addition to those faculties which he 
admits without reserve. 

It is not > however, to be forgotten, that Dr. Browne 
was well acquainted, even in the early part of his pro- 
fessorship, with the doctrines of Gall and Spurzheim; 
and that the first critique in the Edinburgh Review (vol. 
ii. p. 147) upon those doctrines, in JS03, is known 
to be from his pen. It may therefore be presumed, 
that he derived from phrenology some little assistance 
in forming his own system of mental philosophy, con- 
sisting, as it does, of at least four and twenty of the 
faculties of the very system he rejected.* If the re- 
jection was ungrateful, he at least made an amende 
honorable by so liberal an adoption. 

So much, then, for the coincidences of phrenology 
with the other systems of the philosophy of mind. — 
Let us now compare their respective merits and de- 
fects, and ascertain whether the deficiencies of the old 
school have been supplied by the new, 

1 Browne, '200, 292. 
8 Id. 289, 3-2D. 
;! Id. 334. 

4 Id. 178. 

5 Id. id. 
,: Id. id. 

' Id. 290. 

* The author might have added, that Lord Karnes alone de- 
scribes twenty of these faculties. — Ph. Jour. 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 59 

Strange questions have arisen among many meta- 
physicians with respect to the difference between the 
mind of man and other animals — the origin of society, 
language, and property — the nature of the moral sense 
— and the cause of genius and idiocy, insanity, dream- 
ing, and sleep. Curious questions, and elaborately 
discussed; but never decided until Phrenology, sup- 
ported by nature and truth, came forth and gave 
judgment. 

1 Man, 'say metaphysicians, ' is guided by his rea- 
son, and brutes by their instincts. From phrenology 
we may learn that brutes also reason ; and that man is 
not without his instincts. Even the impulse to ana- 
lyze and abstract, or to trace the clue between cause 
and effect, as far as it is an impulse, is but an instinct. 
The process by which these mental operations are per- 
formed, is more than instinct — it is reasoning ; nor is 
tha imagination that assists in the process, by forming 
new combinations, nor the judgment that selects the 
means, and awards the result, nor the memory that 
registers all, to be called an instinct ; but the propen- 
sity to this exercise of the mind, though the highest 
enjoyed by man, is but an instinct. The propensity 
to construct his hut is an instinct in the beaver; but 
who will say that his mental exertions in choosing his 
materials, in shaping them, in placing them, in obviat- 
ing accidents, and completing his edifice, are not rea- 
soning ? 

The true difference between man and the inferior 



60 MEMOIR OF SPURZHE1M. 

animals rests specifically in the greater number and 
superior nature of the faculties he enjoys. They have 
many organs in common ; those which he possesses 
and of which they are destitute, constitute the obvious 
and immutable distinction between them. 

All the organs displayed at the side of the human 
head seem connected with the subsistence and preser- 
vation of the individual, and are common also to brutes. 
Alimentiveness, the last which was admitted, in- 
cites to nourishment, and dictates the choice of food, 
apparently is the primary propensity of the group : 
the next is secretiveness, or cunning, that lies in 
wait for the prey, and eludes the pursuer — then de- 
structiveness, that slaughters the victim, and takes 
pleasure in carnage — cautiousness, that holds back 
both depredator and victim from a more powerful an- 
tagonist — and acquisitiveness, that seeks until it 
obtains, and then hoards the spoil for use. 

Those at the back of the head are all requisite to 
the perpetuation of the species, and the formation or 
advancement of society; and are also appropriate to 
brutes as well as man. The first is that propensity 
which reiterates the behest of the Deity, ' Be fruitful 
and multiply, and replenish the earth.' The second 
is intended to cherish the early and tender production ; 
and insure its preservation by an irresistible impulse, 
the love of offspring. The third knits affection 
and attachment between individuals — husband and wife, 
brother and sister, friend and friend. Without this 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 61 

instrument of Providence, there would be polygamy, 
but no marriage ; there would be children, but no fam- 
ily. The fourth, whether called inhabitiveness 
with Spurzheim, or concentrativeness with Combe,* 
appears in its primitive power to be intended to con- 
centrate all these faculties, to bind family and family 
together, and form of a great portion of the various 
dwellers upon earth, flocks and herds, communities and 
nations. 

The fifth is combativeness, so frequently em- 
ployed in the cause of all those objects of love, mistress 
or wife, children or friends, party, sect, or country. 
The love of approbation is the sixth. It wins its 
way in private and in public, with the fluctuating popu- 

* Perhaps the best name for this organ, as best indicatingits prim- 
itive power, would be ' the social affection,' 'the love of society,' 
or ' the propensity to associate.' It is remarkable that Gall con- 
founded this organ with self-esteem in animals that were destitute 
of the latter faculty. In man, self-esteem is the highest organ of 
the posterior part of the head ; and in quadrupeds that have it not, 
the organ in question necessarily assumes its place. The chamois 
was the animal that occasioned Gall's erroneous conclusion that 
the love of physical elevation in these creatures is the same pro- 
pensity as pride in man. But though the chamois be fond of phys- 
ical height, he is also attached to society, and, wild as he is, he 
chooses to live in flocks. The latter propensity and not the former 
is obviously the power of this organ. 

Spurzheim observes, that * it is larger in Negroes and in the 
Celtic tribes than in the Teutonic races: in the French, for in- 
stance, it is larger than in the Germans.' Let others decide 
whether this distinction confirms, or not, the social character of 
this organ. 

7 



62 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 



lace, or society at large, by endeavoring to please, by 
courting applause, by deserving, or appearing to de- 
serve the public favor. In little minds and on a narrow 
scene, it is Vanity — in great minds and on a mighty 
theatre, it is Ambition. How dull andl ethean the soul 
of nations, if not put into motion by these spirit-stirring 
actors ! 

The seventh and last is self-esteem. It does 
not win, but subdue society. It arrogates, it monopo- 
lizes, it becomes despotic ; but these are abuses of its 
power. It was intended to exalt the consciousness of 
virtue, and render more dignified the assertion of those 
exalted talents, extraordinary acquirements, and benefi- 
cent projects, by which the happiness of a people may 
be established. In an humbler arena this abuse of the 
feeling is Pride or Arrogance. The feeling itself has 
been observed among other species inferior to man — 
so also has the Love of approbation. These more ab- 
ject societies are not, perhaps, exempt, any more than 
mankind, from the scourge of their abuses. 

In these two regions of the head the organs of man 
and those of other animals, whose nature most approxi- 
mates to his, afford but little room for drawing a line 
of distinction between him and them. Not so in the 
region of the forehead and its confines. It is true they 
enjoy nearly as many of those intellectual powers as 
man ; but few in the same perfection. In the external 
senses, alone, some few of them excel him. In those 
which give a cognizance of existing things and their 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM, 63 

relations to each other, which facilitate a communica- 
tion between mind and mind, or which prompt to the 
exertion of skill and intelligence, for the acquisition of 
comforts or enjoyments, he is, beyond all comparison, 
their superior. Individuality, and its adjunct, space, 
which in them but confirms the evidence of the senses 
as to the existence of external things, and confers on 
some few of them the capability of a narrow education, 
yields him that insatiable curiosity, that restless thirst 
of universal knowledge, which exhausts the mineral, 
vegetable, and animal kingdoms, imbibes all the infor- 
mation this diversified globe can supply, and impels 
him to scale the heavens, and take note of all the won- 
ders of the starry Infinite. 

Eventuality, with its adjunct Time, which in 
them embraces only the present moment, or the pres- 
ent scene, or perhaps looks back for a day or possibly 
a year, and scarcely looks forward at all — in him com- 
prehends the history of his species in every portion of 
the earth, the revolutions of that earth itself, before 
history had a name ; and anticipates, not only the 
changes of futurity, but ventures to penetrate, with 
hope, even the secrets of eternity. 

The organ of form, and its adjuncts, size and 
weight, the organs of color and constructiveness 
enable them to distinguish individuals, and know famil- 
iar objects from strange — to preserve their own equi- 
librium — to take pleasure in each other's striped and 
spotted skins or splendid plumage — to dig a borough, 



64 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

build a nest, or erect a hut ; but in him these powers 
stimulate to new creations: the impulse of the first, 
aided no doubt by still superior faculties, shapes the 
marble into beauty, and almost inspires it with life ; 
the second flashes the colors over the canvass, and 
brings back to our admiring eyes, in all their living en- 
ergy, from times long past, deeds of heroic adventure, 
or the hallowed displays of Divine Benevolence ; while 
the third elevates the palace in all its architectural 
splendor, or dedicates a temple, crowned with magnifi- 
cence, to Him whom i the heaven of heavens cannot 
contain.' 

Tune, in the inferior animals, is confined to the 
song of birds. In man it extends, in variety, from the 
wild melodies of the Indian to the mirthful c: pathetic 
airs of the Scottish, Welsh, and Irish, the exquisite 
science of German and Italian sonatas, the fasci- 
nating operas of Mozart and Rossini, and all the 
omnipotence of harmony in the divine oratorios of 
Haydn and Handel. 

Still more confined are the powers of the faculty of 
language in brutes. They, however, utter sounds 
which each individual of the species understands. — 
They also employ all the gestures of natural language, 
and even comprehend the few familiar words with 
which they are habitually addressed. It is not, there- 
fore, irrational to ascribe to them this organ ; particu- 
larly as Spurzheim found that such individuals among 
the deaf and dumb of the human species, as possessed 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 65 

a large development of this organ, understood the 
meaning of natural language, and conversed by the use 
of signs, much better than those of a smaller develop- 
ment. From this humble basis, to all the uses and 
powers of articulate sounds and artificial language, how 
exalted is the ascent ! how immense the efficacy and 
enjoyment possessed by man ! — the intercommunion 
of minds in social or scientific converse — the force and 
perspicacity of argument, advanced to such a degree 
by general terms and intellectual abstractions — the 
strains of Poetry, inculcating piety, magnanimity and 
virtue — and the thunders of Eloquence, commanding 
the destinies of nations, and involving in its splendid 
career the interests both of Time and Eternity ! 

In the forehead is no other organ common to man 
and his fellow animals. He differs from them alto- 
gether, in having an organ of calculation, by which 
he can number the stars, and, with all the instruments 
afforded by the higher mathematics, can weigh and 
measure the planets, assign their courses and times, 
mark out the path and anticipate the coming of comets, 
calculate the distance of the most distant nebula, and 
only terminate his investigations in the inaccessible 
depths of Infinitude. 

The organ of order is peculiar to him, by which 
he arranges every object within his cognizance, 
whether material or mental. But, above all, peculiar 
is that semicircle of exalted faculties, that adorns his 
brow like a diadem. The centre of the brilliant 
7* 



66 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

assemblage is comparison, by which he perceives 
resemblances and differences, abstracts and generalizes, 
analyzes and combines, adapts and illustrates. Next 
is placed causality, by which he ' ascends from 
nature up to nature's God,' and, in proportion as he 
enlarges his views of the universe, expands his swelling 
mind to comprehend the immensity of its Creator. — 
What a universe ! — when we look up to the stars, and 
think that every star is a sun; surrounded by worlds ! 
What a universe ! — when we look to the milky-way, 
and are satisfied that its amazing extent is a congeries 
of similar suns. What a universe ! — when we d< 
nebula rising after nebula in our telescopes, and are 
convinced that each is a milky-way like the fn 
another universe of suns ! The universe, then, is no 
longer a universe, but a myriad of universes. What 
Omnipotence ! what infinite Omnipotence ! This, 
then, is the organ by which we ' ascend from nature 
up to nature's God/ — this the instrument with which 
he has furnished us, to knout him as he is, 

The in \t organ, mi&thfulnkss, is not of such 
profound importance. But if it does not prompt to 
knowledge, it at least diffuses happiness. Laughter 
and smiles are peculiar to man ; 

' I - from reason tl 

To brute den. 

And this faculty seems peculiarly connected with this 
felicitous privilege. It throws a cheerfulness over 
every scene of nature and creation of art. It bur- 



MEMOIR OF SPUUZHE1M. 67 

lesques poetry with Butler, painting with Hogarth, 
and statuary with Thorn ; it enlivens society with its 
flashes of merriment, and makes glad the heart of 
man ; it assures him that he was not intended by his 
Maker for a gloomy, austere, lumpish, frowning bigot, 
but a glad and grateful participator in all the innocent 
enjoyments so profusely and beneficently showered in 
his path. 

The last in this splendid arrangement is ideality, 
the vivifying soul of music, poetry, and eloquence — 
the more than earthly expression of painting and sculp- 
ture, the pure and fascinating grace of architecture, 
and every other elegant art. It refines, exalts, and 
dignifies every* object susceptible of improvement; it 
pants after perfection, and is restless until it is attained ; 
it ameliorates the manners, and elevates the tone of 
society ; and would change even the face of nature 
with Elysian embellishment. Of those largely en- 
dowed with this faculty, it may be said, that the world 
is not their world ; they create a world for themselves ; 
and if realities often disappoint and disgust them, 
realities also bring more enjoyment to them than to 
others ; for they paint them with hues of their own, 
and fling their internal radiance over every object of 
their senses, their thoughts, and their passions. 

So much for the organs of the sides, the back, and 
the front of the head. Those of the crown are almost 
exclusively peculiar to man, and are connected with 



OO MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

his noblest feelings, most imperative duties, and most 
exalted expectations. The only exceptions are be- 
nevolence and imitation. The first, as far as 
other animals can possess it, is merely a mildness and 
amenity of disposition, and cannot exalt itself, ftl 
him, to the comprehensive sentiments of generosity, 
philanthropy, and charity, embracing in their kindness 
not only friends and countrymen, hut mankind — not 
only mankind, hut all living creatures. Tin 
closely borders on the first, as if to catch a portion of 
pirit, and convey the precept to all, ■ Go, and do 
likewise.' It is as important in its utility, as its high 
situation among the organs would indicate. It is g 
rally larger in infancy than in manhood ; and its 
influence in learning . and 

acquiring perfection in the arts, affords a triumphant 
contrast to the uses made of the sat D by the 

monkey, the ape, the parrot, and the mocking-bird. 
Here end the pretensions of other animals to c 
with man. The organ which has received the name 
oi Ma&YXLLOUSNESS, but whose primitive power 
seem- to be BS yet unknown, is altogether foreign to 
their nee and nature. If Ideality be the sense 

of Beauty, this may be the sense of the Sublime : and 
those profound and enei _ itfa which we 

trespass on the solemn >ilence of a gloomy cathedral, 
with which we penetrate the dark solitude of a IV; 
with which we find alone in a mountainous 

desert, ridge behind ridge, peek behind peak, like 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. OVf 

billows of an ocean, delight while they oppress us ; 
and we enthusiastically cherish in recollection, or seek 
in reality to renew these mysterious and almost vision- 
ary enjoyments — this religious and almost supernatural 
aw T e. 

The organ of hope presents a species of anomaly. 
To hope for fame, wealth, or any kind of pleasure, 
appears to be an affection of the organs appropriated 
to the love of approbation, acquisitiveness, and other 
propensities ; they all, if excited, desire their peculiar 
object ; if under circumstances where they are likely 
to obtain it, they hope, or they expect, in proportion 
as the probability of enjoyment is smaller or greater. 
Analogy, therefore, suggests the inference, that the 
organ in question has, like the other organs, an object 
of its own ; and why may not that object be a future 
existence. In every region, civilized or savage, the 
desire to outlive this transitory life is indulged by all 
men with anxious hope or certain expectation, accord- 
ing to the degree of their confidence in the promises 
of Revelation — or, where the light of Revelation has 
not penetrated, in the spontaneous longings of this 
very organ. If this view be accurate, this faculty is 
still more remote than the preceding from any nature 
inferior to man's. Nor is this explanation inconsistent 
with the widest scope of this affection ; for it is not 
to be forgotten that nations have invented almost as 
many elysiums and paradises as gods and demigods: 
yet it is manifest that the organs of Hope and Venera- 



70 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

tion are of little comparative importance, except so far 
as they regard the just expectation of a future state, 
and the pure homage of the Creator. But, supposing 
that these organs were primarily designed for those 
specific objects, it appears necessary, from analogy, 
that their respective powers should be unrestricted ; 
and that Hope should embrace every kind of hope, 
worldly and unworldly — and Veneration, every kind 
of veneration, human and divine. 

Far removed from the participation of other animals, 
is also Conscientiousness. This potent monitor 
impels us to our duties, in spite of every seduction of 
those feelings, which we inherit in common with the 
brutes. It is supported by the organ of firmness, as 
if it was intended that they should unite to proclaim, 
in the most pithy and intelligible language, that grand 
moral maxim, ' be just and fear not.' 

Lastly, in the centre of the crown is veneration, 
that irresistible power which propels man to the worship 
of God, or in derogation of the omnipotent, omniscient, 
universal Father, whatever being, he chooses in his 
folly, to call God — to seat beside him on his throne — 
or even substitute in his place. The highest preroga- 
tive of rational beings is to know the only true God, 
and kindle to him, in this organ, the incense of their 
adoration. They have two roads by which to obtain 
this knowledge — the study of Scripture, and the study 
of the Universe. In both these records it will be 
found that the God of Revelation and Nature is one 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 71 

God, and that there is none other but he. Until this 
truth be acknowledged, the blind energy of this organ 
but ignorantly worships the unknown god. 

Such are the numerous and manifest distinctions, 
established by phrenology, between man and inferior 
creatures ; and, unlike the deductions of the old phi- 
losophy, are corroborated and confirmed in every 
instance by nature. Nor are the mental differences 
between the different species of animals less striking. 
The nearer their nature approximates to his, the more 
propensities and powers they enjoy ; they stand lower 
in the scale, as the number and importance of their 
organs are reduced. Few animals possess Self- 
esteem, or the Love of approbation, which appear to 
be restricted to a small number of the social tribes. 
These also possess Benevolence, but are destitute of 
Destructiveness ; — the solitary savage tribes possess 
Destructiveness, but are destitute of Benevolence. 
This observation applies to birds as w T ell as quadrupeds. 
Constructiveness is rare among quadrupeds, but com- 
mon among birds. Acquisitiveness is rare or common, 
in these different classes, nearly in the same proportion. 
Secretiveness and Cautiousness are frequent append- 
ages of timid and solitary creatures. Cautiousness is 
never absent from the circumspect and watchful, which 
herd together in wilds and mountains. The cerebel- 
lum is never absent in quadrupeds — in birds it is trans- 
versely furrowed, but not divided into two lobes. 



72 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

Indeed, in all oviparous creatures, it seems to be re- 
duced to the vermiform process. Granivorous birds 
seem, however, to possess much the same organization 
as herbivorous quadrupeds, and the carnivorous have 
many points of resemblance with carnivorous quadru- 
peds. The most common propensity among birds is 
Philoprogenitiveness ; Attachment is very general. 
Tune is enjoyed by many species, and locality must 
be the propelling faculty in every tribe that migrates. 

This faculty is manifested also in many families of 
fishes — but Destructiveness seems to be their prevalent 
organ. In the shark it must occupy almost the whole 
mass of the cerebrum. In this class the cerebellum 
is large in proportion to the cerebrum, and in some 
instances exceeds it in size. Their history would 
indicate that they have little or no Philoprogenitiveness. 
It is said they enjoy all the senses but taste. The 
brain of reptiles, like that of fishes, occupies but a 
small part of the cranium. In a crocodile of four- 
teen feet length, the cavity will hardly admit the 
thumb. Like the shark's, this brain must be little 
more than an organ of Destructiveness. The same 
observation applies to the several tribes of serpents, 
particularly the poisonous. All reptiles swallow entire 
animals, and do not masticate their food. They ex- 
hibit great voracity, but also a wonderful power of 
abstinence. 

Lower than the reptiles, in fact in the lowest cl; 
the mollusca, creatures are to be found with brains. 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 73 

The most horrible of the productions of nature, is 
perhaps, the octopus of the Indian seas. The eight 
arms of this monster are said to be nine fathoms in 
length ; and the Indian boatmen are for ever in terror 
of being entangled in their grasp, and conveyed into a 
stomach of proportionate dimensions and voracity. 
Other species of the cuttle-fish are represented as de- 
fending their females, and escaping from danger by 
discharging an inky liquid, which discolors the sea, and 
baffles the pursuit of their enemy. But no victim can 
elude the vigilance of their huge glaring eyes, or the 
tenacity of their widely extended holders, armed with 
suckers like mouths. 

All these classes possess a brain, and (with the ex- 
ception of the monsters just alluded to) a spinal cord, 
and a system of nerves. Where there is a head, there 
is no difficulty in supposing a mind;"* and we can read- 
ily measure the extent of that mind, by the knowledge 
we have of the propensities and powers of which it is 
compounded, and such perception, memory, judgment, 
and imagination, as may reasonably be conceived as the 

* It is necessary to observe, that mind here, does not mean soul; 
a confusion of terms not confined to the ignorant, but employed 
even by philosophers. The subject has been largely discussed in 
( An Essay on such Physical Considerations as are connected with 
Man's ultimate destination, the essential constitution of Superior 
Beings, and the presumptive unity of Nature.' But the views in- 
sisted on, in that Essay, have no necessary connexion with phre- 
nology, except so far as one series of truths may be connected with 
another. A phrenologist may be a very good phrenologist, wheth- 
er he adopts or rejects the views of the author. 
8 



74 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

concomitants of these propensities and powers. But 
where there is no head, or such a diminutive one as can 
scarcely form a receptacle for a brain, we are lost in 
perplexity. The bee, the ant, and various other in- 
sects, evince great mental powers ; but whether they 
reside in their diminutive heads, or in the nervous fila- 
ments, that the microscope has detected in their 
bodies, must long remain a mystery. Their construc- 
tiveness, acquisitiveness, locality, and combativeness, 
are well worthy to be lodged in a brain : but if they 
are confined to microscopic threads, then these threads 
may well be considered analogous to the ultimate 
fibres of the cerebral organs, endowed with similar 
powers. 

JTorms have no distinguishable head ; and whatever 
mind they enjoy must emanate from the great sympa- 
thetic nerve, which, with its adjuncts, occupies their 
interior. But various other animals are even destitute 
of a nerve ; and whatever nervous matter enters into 
their composition, is diffused through their flesh, 
undistinguishable from the rest of the mass. Oysters 
and other bivalves open and close their shells, and 
fatten on whatever meagre nourishment salt water can 
supply. 

Jlctinec?, which seem to grow like flowers on the 
rocks, and so closely resemble the anemony, the 
carnation, and the sunflower, that they are distin- 
guished by these names, can walk upon their tentacula, 
and, for this purpose, invert themselves, and their bases 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHE1M. 75 

become uppermost. They live in holes in the rocks ; 
and, putting the water in motion with their arms, thus 
bring their distant prey within reach. — They swallow 
muscles, and reject the entire shells, after extracting 
the fish. The magnified is cautious and circumspect ; 
and on the approach of danger withdraws its tentacula 
into its elastic tube ; and then this tube into its den in 
the rock. The medusa and star-Jish can sink and rise, 
and direct their movements at pleasure. They have 
no nerves or circulation ; but their arms are excellent 
organs of touch. If any of these sea-flowers, medusa3, 
and star-fish, be cut into pieces, each piece becomes as 
perfect an animal as its original. The polypus possess- 
es an equal facility of reproduction. It is a mere 
stomorh, and can have no other desire or gratification 
but such as may be supposed to actuate a stomach not 
accustomed to much variety. The sponge is a con- 
geries of reticulated fibres, clothed with gelatinous flesh, 
full of small mouths, by which it absorbs and rejects 
water, and acquires all necessary nourishment. Its 
pores alternately contract and dilate, and it shrinks 
from the touch when examined in its native situation. 
It scarcely seems to possess the organization worthy to 
raise it to the dignity of a plant ; yet it gives unequiv- 
ocal proof of animal life, and arrogates a right to be 
admitted into a superior kingdom. 

Can such creatures have mental powers? — can Mol- 
luscae have minds ? I doubt whether this question 
must not be answered in the affirmative. Even the 



76 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

very Sense of existence is a Mind to the animal that 
yet possesses no other feeling. If the Sponge be a 
living animal, and possess that feeling, to that extent it 
must have a Mind. But the other species of Molluscae 
I have named, enjoy superior powers. They have, all, 
the powers of voluntary motion, and some of them of 
locomotion. They have, all, the desire of food ; but, 
perhaps, none of them a choice, even restricted, of the 
victims they swallow. They have, all, offspring; but 
whether they experience any indistinct and feeble type 
of the feeling, which, in superior animals, resides in the 
cerebellum — whether they know that they have young, 
or care whether they have or not, it were vain to 
conjecture. But thus far we may assume — that 
whatever pleasure they may feel in s^vallowin^ their 
prey — whatever enjoyment in their voluntary move- 
ments — whatever pain when they shrink from danger — 
whatever desire of food or other gratification within 
their narrow sphere — even the very sense of existence 
itself — all these feelings, as far as they exist in the ani- 
mal, combine to constitute its Mind — and a Mind it 
has, if it be a living creature.* 

What difference then, it will be asked, between the 
Mind emanating from the unorganized nervous mass of 
these Molluscae, and the highly organized cerebral sys- 
tem of more perfect animals ? The question is start- 
ling, and deserves an answer : but it is not easy, in the 
present state of our knowledge, to attain satisfaction, 

* See Note, pp. 73, 74. 



MEMOIR OF SPUKZHE1M. 77 

much less conviction. It is, however, to be observed, 
that these creatures can neither see, nor hear, nor 
smell, nor taste, and seem to be only sensible of present 
feelings and desires ; probably they have no memory, 
no anticipation, no choice, no inventive resources to 
gratify any of their wants — and these are the common 
attributes of every brain and its congeries of organs, 
every organ being imbued with its own propensity, 
perception, memory, judgment, and imagination. 

I have dwelt thus long on the first of these important 
questions, the difference between man and the 
inferior animals, because these minute details will 
render more easy and perspicuous the discussion of the 
other subjects on which Phrenology appears to have 
thrown more light than all the labors of metaphysics 
in all past ages. With respect to the next question, 
the origin of society, we have even anticipated the 
solution, in discussing the nature and connexion of the 
organs developed at the back of the head. 

It is admitted that mankind, at the earliest periods, 
were united in society; yet various theories have been 
formed concerning the circumstances and principles 
which gave rise to this union. These theories suppose 
the original state of man to be that of savages, without 
language, intellect, or moral restraint, the * mutum et 
turpepecusf which the Roman Satirist describes with 
more of poetical beauty than philosophical truth. Such 
suppositions are contradicted by the most authentic 
8* 



78 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

records of antiquity ; and the Mosaic account of the 
exalted endowments bestowed upon man — even if it 
had no higher pretension, carries conviction to the 
mind, from its consonance with nature and reason. — 
Children increased, families multiplied, and commu- 
nities were established ; and it could not have been 
otherwise, from the organization of the mental faculties 
bestowed by God upon Man. If he had been denied 
the organ of Attachment, husband and wife would have 
separated with as little ceremony, and lived as much 
asunder as the tiger and tigress; if denied Phi- 
loprogenitiveness, he would have shaken off his off- 
spring as if they were leopard's cubs, or, like the os- 
trich, abandoned them altogether ; if denied Concen- 
trativeness, family would have fought with family, in- 
stead of uniting into communities, and battling with 
other communities in defence of their women, their 
children and their portion of the soil. Without Com- 
bativeness, they would not have battled at all ; but 
suffered the beasts to make war on them, and yielded 
in weakness and despair their lives to the victors; 
without Self-esteem and the Love of Approbation, there 
would have been no government of the community, no 
desire nor ambition to become its leader or head — no 
struggle for power — no monarchy, no oligarchy, no 
republic. Would society be better if it were other- 
wise ? We may venture to decide that it would not. 
It is according to the mental powers given us by God ; 
and what He wills must, on the whole, be best. 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM* 79 

It is the same in the humbler communities of animals 
— the dove-cot, the rookery, the domestic flocks and 
herds, the wild flocks and herds, those which unite for 
migration, those which unite for the chase, those which 
place sentinels, and seek their safety in flight or resist- 
ance, all are alike governed by their organization ; and 
where the organization differs, there is also a differ- 
ence in the constitution of the society. Are they gre- 
garious because they considered effects and causes, 
and saw that their security and happiness depended on 
a union of strength or of intellect? No! they are gre- 
garious, because they feel the irresistible impulse of 
their organization. — This is the prime and proximate 
cause of society. 

Philosophers have differed much as to the origin 
of articulate language ; and some cannot conceive 
how man could have arrived at so exquisite a power 
without the intervention of the Deity ; and therefore 
conclude that this divine gift was bestowed by inspira- 
tion on our first parents. 

I admit that the gift is divine, and that God is the 
giver, as he is the giver of all good things ; but the in- 
spiration was indirect, not immediate ; the inspiration 
resides in the organ of Language, and that organ is 
the gift of God. Were a family of men to be created 
by miracle in a wilderness, they would, if similarly 
endowed with us, feel the impulse of this organ, 
and soon learn, in the first instance, to comprehend 



80 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM, 

each other's gestures and cries, and other signs of 
their natural language, and ascend by these means to 
the exalted acquisition of an artificial language, by 
giving, step after step, conventional names to objects 
and actions, emotions and passions, generalizations and 
abstractions. 

If this impulse and ability were not in man, there 
never could have been more than one language on the 
face of the earth; that with which God inspired Adam, 
and with which Adam instructed his children and de- 
scendants. 

The right of property has been assigned bv 
moral philosophers to a similar origin. ■ It is the inten- 
tion of God? says Paley, c that the produce of the earth 
be applied to the use of man ; this intention cannot be 
fulfilled without establishing property ; it is consistent, 
therefore, with his icill, that property be established. 
The land cannot be divided into separate property 
without leaving it to the law of the country to regulate 
that division : it is consistent, therefore, with the same 
will, that the law should regulate the division ; and 
consequently consistent with the will of God, or right, 
that I should possess that share which these regula- 
tions assign me. By whatever circuitous train of rea- 
soning you attempt to derive this right, it must ter- 
minate at last in the will of God; the straight 
therefore, and shortest way of arriving at this will is 
the best.'* 

* Paley's * Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy,* — *20th 
edition: I. 1 19. 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 



81 



That is simply by expressing it; for Paley did not 
know that there was a still more satisfactory mode, by 
pointing out the organ of acquisitiveness in the hu- 
man head, and the heads of such animals as collect and 
store their food. This organ declares the will of God 
with the voice of a commandment, and gives us an 
indisputable right to all the property we can acquire 
by the sweat of our brow, whether the exsudation be 
the consequence of bodily or mental labor. No in- 
dividual, nor even the community itself, can justly 
despoil us of the smallest portion of it, without our 
own consent expressedly or impliedly given, so long 
as we respect the same right in others, and conform 
ourselves to the dictates of another organ, conferred 
upon us for the very purpose — the organ of conscien- 
tiousness. 

Adam Smith was ignorant of the existence of this 
organ ; and therefore to explain the nature of a con- 
science in man, invented his beautiful Theory of the 
Moral Sentiments. In this discussion he announces a 
universal sympathy, according to whose laws we can- 
not witness the infliction of injustice, oppression, or 
cruelty, without feeling with the injured and oppressed, 
as if we were ourselves the sufferers, and participating 
their indignation against the offender. And even when 
we ourselves are hurried into a similar violation of 
justice, this equitable and undiscriminating law com- 
pels us to sympathize with the very victims of our 



82 MEMOIR OF SPTJRZHEIM. 

crime, compels us to judge ourselves, and fills our 
bosom with the same indignation that irritates the spec- 
tator and the sufferer against us. Nor does he confine 
this sympathy to the mind. He makes, of the body, 
one general organ for its reception, observing that we 
cannot witness any species of torture inflicted, with- 
out writhing in the very limb which we see racked in 
another. 

This theory of the Moral Sense, however plausible, 
is in fact unfounded. It is not indignation, anger, or 
aversion, which we feel at our own neglects or breach- 
es of the moral law. No ! These are the feelings of 
the spectator and sufferer. What we feel is regret at 
trivial or unintentional offences, and all the pangs of 
remorse at wilful and premeditated crimes and cruel- 
ties. 

Conscientiousness, like every other organ, is pleased 
in being exercised ; and its natural exercise is in per- 
forming just, and resisting the tendency to iniquitous 
actions, fulfilling duties, and overcoming the indolence 
that would influence us to neglect them. But the want 
of this pleasure is positive pain; and in proportion as 
the faculty is stronger, the pain must be greater. 
Every neglect of duty, every repetition of vice, must 
excite a qualm of conscience — a craving after self- 
approbation ; for, like every other propensity, this must 
have a desire for its natural pabulum, and the painful 
sense of a vacuum, while that desire is at once active 
and ungratified. The remorse which we experience 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 83 

has nothing in common with anger, aversion, or indig- 
nation, but is rather a yearning after the self-approval 
which we want — an appetite, like hunger, to fill up a 
painful void which torments us. 

Another question which has divided philosophers is, 
'What is the cause of genius in science and the arts?' 
The Abbe Dubos, who flourished upwards of a century 
since, maintained, almost in the language of a phre- 
nologist of the present day, that it was 'a happy ar- 
rangement of the organs of the brain, and a just con- 
formation of each of these organs.' He adds, rather 
theoretically, ' as also in the quality of the blood which 
disposes it to ferment during exercise, so as to furnish 
plenty of spirits to the springs employed in the functions 
of the imagination/ 

A compilator who quotes Dubos, at the beginning 
of the present century, and discusses the subject a 
little more- philosophically, defines genius to be ' a 
natural talent or disposition to do one thing more than 
another, or the aptitude a man has received from na- 
ture to perform well and easily that which others can 
do but indifferently, and with a great deal of pains.' 
'To know the bent of nature,' he continues, 'is of 
great importance. Men usually come into the world 
with a genius determined not only to a certain art, but 
to certain parts of that art, in which alone they are ca- 
pable of success. If they quit their sphere, they fall 
even below mediocrity in their profession. Art and 



84 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

industry add much to natural endowments, but cannot 
supply them where they are wanting. Every thing de- 
pends on genius. A painter often pleases without 
observing rules, whilst another displeases, though he 
observes them, because he has not the happiness of 
being born with a genius for painting. A man born 
with a genius for commanding an army, and capable 
of becoming a great general by the help of experience, 
is one whose organical conformation is such, that his 
valor is no obstruction to his presence of mind, and his 
presence of mind causes no abatement of his valor.' 

Helvetius, however, was of a very different opinion. 
He decides that c it is emulation that produces Genius, 
and a desire of becoming illustrious that creates tal- 
ents.'* He even maintains that all men have an equal 
aptitude to understanding, and that this equal aptitude 
is a dead power in them when not vivified by the pas- 
sions ; but that the passion for Glory is that which most 
commonly sets them in action. f 

Reid advances a still different doctrine. ' In all in- 
vention,' he says, ' there must be some end in view ; 
and sagacity in finding out the road that leads to this 
end is what we call invention. In this chiefly, and in 
clear and distinct conceptions, consists that superiority 
of understanding, which we call genius. 'J 

* Treatise on Man, his Intellectual Faculties, and Education, 
1.23. 

t Id. I. 361. 
% Reid II. 344. 



MEMOIR OF SFURZHEIM. 85 

Thus, according to Helvetius, the poet, the painter, 
the sculptor, the architect, the musician, the mathema- 
tician, the naturalist, the metaphysician, and the com- 
mander of armies, who have risen to the highest emi- 
nence, each in a career so different, by the transcendent 
force of genius, all owe that genius, in all these forms, 
to one single stimulant, the love of glory ; and, accord- 
ing to Reid, they owe, each his own peculiar genius, 
mere!) to a general superiority of understanding, which 
consists in the possession of clear and distinct concep- 
tions, and sagacity in finding the right road to an 
object. Helvetius reduces every kind of genius to 
Love of Approbation; and Reid's hypothesis chiefly 
points to Individuality and Causality. But the phre- 
nologist knows that, alone and unassisted, the love of 
approbation confers no genius except that which ex- 
hibits itself in vanity or ambition ; and that the united 
powers of individuality and causality, uncombined with 
others, may possibly produce a profound genius in 
some branches of philosophy ; but not another of that 
great variety by which the votaries of so many arts and 
sciences are distinguished. 

But to use the language of phrenology may look like 
begging the question, and taking for granted what re- 
mains to be proved ; let us then suppose that these two 
eminent philosophers considered a comprehensive and 
powerful understanding, apt, vivid, clear, perspicuous, 
and sagacious, as amply sufficient to account for every 
kind of genius, aided by such modifications as accident 
9 



86 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

or education may occasion ; but that Helvetius goes a 
little beyond Reid, by requiring as a stimulant the love 
of glory. Is it not obvious that an individual gifted 
with such an understanding ought to be, if not mathe- 
matician, painter, poet, musician, architect, and general, 
yet capable of becoming all or any of them, by the 
force of education; yet can it be thought that Jedediah 
Buxton, who was such a genius in calculation, could 
ever have become a genius in acting. To see Garrick 
in Richard was sufficient to have awakened his dor- 
mant powers of imitation, if capable of excitement ; but 
what did this night's education do for him ? Did he 
burn with the enthusiasm of an actor? Did he even 
melt with the sympathies of a man ? Did he shed a 
single tear of pity or indignation? No! His* com- 
prehensive and powerful understanding, apt, vivid, 
clear, perspicuous, and sagacious, 5 stimulated, as it 
ought to have been, by the concentrated force of all 
his feelings and affections, only enabled him to count 
the words of Garrick, and announce with accurate 
precision the number he had uttered. 

No! He was but a genius in that one particular. 
Others have been geniuses in many particulars. Some 
few, like the admirable Crichton, Benvenuto Cellini, 
Michael Angelo, Julio Romano, and others have each 
of them almost merited to be styled, if not an univer- 
sal genius, at least one of most versatile powers; and 
how, without the aid of phrenology, can these differ- 
ences and disproportions be explained ? The facility 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHE1M. 87 

and perspicuity of the solution leave no room to 
doubt its truth. 

Were an individual to possess, of supereminent 
dimensions, the several organs, and that all were active, 
energetic, and cultivated, such a man would be an 
universal genius ; he could be any thing for which he 
chose, by practice, to educate his faculties. But if he 
were not so amply gifted, but failed in the perfect 
exuberance of one or two of those powers : for instance, 
if he were deficient in language and ideality, he could 
never be a poet — if deficient in form and size, he 
could never be a sculptor — if in form and color, he 
could never be a painter — if in form and constructive- 
ness, he could never be an architect — if in tune and 
time, he could never be a musician — if in calculation 
and space, he could never be a geometrician — if in 
comparison and causality, he could never be a philoso- 
pher — or if he were deficient in mirthfulness alone, 
he could never be a man of wit or humor. Not that 
any of these can create a genius : comparison, causality, 
ideality, individuality, must all contribute their assist- 
ance. It is a happy combination of organs that makes 
the genius, in whatever art ; and if the predominant 
organ of that combination be tune, the individual may 
be a Handel — if ideality, a Milton — if coloring, a 
Raphael — if form, a Canova — if constructiveness, an 
Angelo — if calculation, a Maclaurin — if causality, a 
Newton, a Herschel, a Lavoisier, a Spurzheim. 



88 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

The grand opposite to Genius is idiocy ; but it has 
even been admitted by proprietors of the most eminent 
genius, that this quality and insanity are nearly a-kin. 

' Great wit to madness ever is allied/ 

But nothing can differ more from each other than ttje 
primary cause of idiocy and insanity ; yet philosophers, 
to this day, are in the habit of ascribing both, to one 
and the same cause, disease of the mind ; as if it were 
possible the mind could be diseased. The mind, like 
music, has nothing in common with matter, except 
that it is manifested by means of material instruments. 
Those instruments of mind, those material organs, may 
be disordered, unduly excited, inflamed — the mental 
faculties inherent in them become confused, incohc i 
ungovernable ; and this is insanity. F.ven 
organ may be more excited and inflamed than the 
others, so as no longer to submit to the influence of its 
superiors, the intellectual and moral powers ; and this 
is monomania. But every species of insanity, whether 
6 demoniac frenzy, moping melancholy, or moon-struck 
madness,' is altogether different from idiocy, except 
when it degenerates into that hopeless and abject con- 
dition ; and that is when the substance of the brain has 
been disorganized by the disease. This, then, is one 
species of idiocy. Another is where the brain is de- 
ficient in size — where it is too diminutive to exercise 
the powers required of the human encephalon. A 
third and not uncommon species is where some of the 
reflecting and moral organs are absolutely wanting ; a 
human being, thus imperfect, sinks, in his mental 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. o9 

manifestations, to a level with the oran-outang — per- 
haps below him. Spurzheim had an opportunity of 
dissecting and comparing together the brain of this 
animal and the brain of an idiot ; that of the idiot was 
destitute of almost every organ by which man is dis- 
tinguished from the brutes. He made accurate draw- 
ings of them, with an inspection of which he gratified 
many in this city. He also wrote a memoir on the 
subject, which was never published ; and if not dis- 
covered among his papers, will be an incalculable loss 
to the scientific public. But if we must experience 
this regret, the Royal Society are principally to blame. 
It was read before that learned body, but they refused 
it a place in their Transactions.* It is difficult to 
conjecture w T hy they should reject a paper so valuable, 
and, in the present state of science, so calculated to 
afford, on an important point, a clear insight into 
nature ; and still more difficult to conceive why they 

* Happily, Mr. Carmicheal errs in supposing that this memoir 
was not printed. It was published in an octavo form, entitled, 
1 Appendix to the Anatomy of the Brain, containing a paper 
read before the Royal Society on the 14th of May, 1829, and some 
remarks on Mr. Charles Bell's animadversions on Phrenology. 
By J. G. Spurzheim, with seven lithographic plates. London, 
Treuttel, Wurtz and Richter,1830.' The titles of its different sec- 
tions are, — c On the Brain as an aggregation of parts.' — ; The parts 
of the Human Brain in the ordinary state of health are essentially 
the same, and only modified in size and quality.' — ' In certain 
idiots, individual portions of the Brain are defective, or even want- 
ing.' — ' The Brain of Oran-outang does not contain all the parts 
of the Human Brain.' In the American edition of Spurzheim's 
Anatomy the ' Appendix ' will be included. 

9* 



90 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

should so unceremoniously wound the feelings of its 
highly gifted author. It was said, indeed, at the time, 
that the majority of the committee, who imposed this 
monstrous decision on their brethren, were struck with 
some awkward resemblance between their own cerebral 
masses and those under review. But whether this 
unhappy sensitiveness was occasioned by the brute or 
the fool, or by both, my profound respect for the 
members of that learned association forbids me to in- 
quire. 

It is rather whimsical, that an essay on the topics 
we are next to discuss was honored with a similar 
rejection by the twin sister of the Royal Society — the 
Royal Irish Academy. But the paper alluded to was 
not, perhaps, of so much value ; and certainly was 
not the offspring of a mind of such gigantic dimen- 
sions. It was, however, entitled, ■ An Essay on 
Dreaming, including conjectures on the proximate 
cause of Sleep.' The majority of the Council of that 
learned body thought it savored of materialism, to 
represent the brain as having any connexion with the 
mind — it being their opinion that this gift of Go I was 
a superfluity, and that the mind could exist, and per- 
ceive, and operate in the empty cavern of the skull, as 
well without as with this c most miraculous organ.' 
The essay, how T ever, was more fortunate than Spurz- 
heim's, and is in no danger of being lost ; for the can- 
did and liberal Association of Fellows and Licentiates 
of the College of Physicians eagerly published it in 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 91 

their Transactions. * Reviewers were lavish in their 
recommendations of its contents to psychologists and 
metaphysicians ;f and Tilloch republished it in the Phi- 
losophical Magazine. J It is, therefore unnecessary, 
and would be irksome, if not unsuitable, to repeat here 
what is there detailed of the failure of the most eminent 
philosophers — of Locke, Hartley, Beattie, Darwin, 
and Stewart, in their attempts to explain the phenome- 
non of dreaming ; or to insist over again, with requisite 
copiousness, on the satisfactory solution of Spurzheim. 
But even Spurzheim himself did not sufficiently eluci- 
date the nature of sleep, where he says, ' All organs, 
being fatigued, take rest ; and this state of rest is 
sleep. '§ We know that that is something more than 
rest which involves so intense and predominant a 
change, locks up the senses and the intellect, and in- 
duces an oblivion of all we knew — an annihilation, to 
the slumberer, of all that existed. Such a change can 
only be caused by some important vital process, so 
indispensable as to be of daily recurrence — and of such 
general influence as to engage every part of the frame, 
but particularly the organs of thinking, sensation, and 
voluntary motion. Such a process is that which re- 
pairs the waste of the brain and nerves, and preserves 
their consistence and vigor — the process of assimilation. 

* Transactions of the College of Physicians, TI. p. 48. 
t London Medical Repository, No. 71 — p. 406. London Medi- 
cal and Physical Journal, No. 242— p. 322. 

% Tilloch's Philosophical Magazine, LIV.- p. 252, 324. 
§ Spurzheim's Phrenology, 1815, p. 216. 



92 MEMOIR OF SPURZHE1M. 

Powerful and overwhelming must be its effects on the 
delicate and fragile instruments of thought, feeling, and 
motion ! and it would be irrational to suppose that a 
change which affects their very structure, by the 
deposit of new particles, must not be attended by a 
cessation of their functions — an actual, though a natural 
paralysis — the paralysis of sleep. 

The deposit of those particles, not yet employed in 
the functions of feeling or thinking, must have a simi- 
lar effect as the imposition of an extraneous body on 
those tender and exquisite organs ; and their paralyzing 
compression must continue, under the form of sleep, 
until the assimilation is complete, and that the new ner- 
vous particles are as fit as the old for the operations 
and uses for which they were designed by the Creator. 
The function then commences : internal organ after 
organ, nerve after nerve, enters into activity — the ex- 
ternal senses resume their daily occupations — the mind 
is in communication with the external world — the re- 
cent slumberer is awake.* 

In the gradual progress from intense sleep, when 
there can be no dream, to the moment of perfect vigi- 
lance, see what occurs. The first cerebral organ that 
awakes, enters on the train of thinking connected with 
its faculty : some kind of dream is the result — as organ 
after organ awakes, the dream becomes more vivid, 
and as the number of active organs increases, so does 

* These ingenious views have much probability ; but our hopes 
that certainty on the subject will speedily be attained, are not san- 
guine. — Ph, Jour. 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 93 

the complication of dreams; and if all the internal or- 
gans are awake, the man is still asleep until his awaking 
senses bring him into direct communication with the 
world. 

Until that event, the mind may exert its influence 
over the nervous system as powerfully as if the individ- 
ual were awake. But this exertion will be fruitless as 
long as the process of assimilation is acting on the 
nerves. Under strong excitement we struggle to move 
our limbs, and cannot. Whatever other causes may 
supervene, if there were no other but this, we should 
labor under night-mare — a sense of oppressive re- 
straint attends our ineffectual efforts — we endeavor to 
shake it off, and, in the exertion, awake. 

But it may happen that the mind, in commanding 
the nerves, may find them ready to obey — the process 
of assimilation may have ceased — they may be awake 
— the sleeper may put his limbs into motion — he may 
traverse the chambers of the house, or the streets of 
the city — walk on the battlements of a' bridge — fling 
himself into a river, or accomplish any other frightful freak 
of somnambulism. But happily this peculiar phe- 
nomenon is of rarer occurrence than, from the simplici- 
ty of its obvious cause, might reasonably be supposed. 

In concluding this subject, let me observe that a 
reverie is but a waking dream, as a dream is but a 
sleeping reverie. In the one case, though the senses 
are in full power to receive external impressions, the 
mind does not attend to them ; and they are as effec- 
tually excluded as in the other case, where the senses 



94 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

are sealed up, and the world is shut out. In both, the 
current of our thoughts assumes the vividness of re- 
ality. The landscapes, the cities, the crowds, the indi- 
viduals, the conversations, the tunes, which present 
themselves to our mind, are as much realities, for the 
moment, as if we saw and heard thern, until the illusion 
is dissipated, in the one instance, by some strong ex- 
ternal impression, which recalls our senses to their duty; 
and in the other, by the departure of sleep from those 
senses, and the consequent renewal of our intercourse 
with the realities of the world. 

If an hypothesis more naturally accounts for phe- 
nomena than its precursors — if it accounts for every 
phenomenon of which we desire an explanation — if it 
dovetails and cements with all our former knowledge 
on the subject — there is no reason why it should not 
be received, until another shall be produced more ra- 
tional, satisfactory, and worthy of acceptance. This 
hypothesis of sleep I owe to phrenology — to phreno- 
logy, then, be all the credit. It occurred to me in 
preparing an answer to the cavils of the Quarterly 
Review. Many objections were advanced against it ; 
but they were all fairly and unsophistically answered, 
without a single exception. It is unnecessary even to 
advert to them here : — 

1 There's nought so tedious as a twice-told tale.' 

Thus have I endeavored to lay before you the many 
instances in which phrenology has thrown new light 
upon the science of mind ; and how much it has 
radically changed, improved, and exalted this impor- 



MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 95 

tant, I might say, this momentous department of philoso- 
phy. What a debt of gratitude and admiration do we 
not owe to Gall, whose wonderful talent for observa- 
tion, whose unwearied perseverance, whose powerful 
and original mode of conception, led to this grand 
result ; and even from the very abuses, exaggerations, 
and deformities manifested in the exercise of the 
mental powers, struck out and established the consti- 
tution — nay, the very organization of mind ! But a still 
deeper debt do we owe to Spurzheim, whose sagacity, 
amidst a labyrinth of apparent absurdity, found a clue 
to guide him to the shrine of Reason — whose resistless 
understanding penetrated the chaos of deformities, 
exaggerations, and abuses, and saw, beneath the crude 
and shapeless mass, the true design of Omniscient 
Benevolence. It is no longer a chaos, but a creation ; 
not the creation of the philosopher, but the creation of 
God, where every thing is good.* 

* With the general tenor of these sentiments we heartily concur : 
the author, however, undoubtedly over-estimates' the labors of 
Spurzheim, in asserting that to him is due — what he never claimed 
— c a still deeper debt ' of gratitude and admiration than to Dr. 
Gall. Dr. Elliotson, we think, speaks more accurately when he 
says, ' The whole praise of discovery belongs to Dr. Gall; but Dr. 
Spurzheim has made such advances and improvements as to have 
almost equal merit. — We would farther remark, that the phrase 
1 constitution and organization of mind,' employed by Mr. Car- 
michael in the passage quoted, is neither unequivocal nor strictly 
correct, and ought therefore to be modified in subsequent editions. 
The essence and structure of the mind are, and, in all probability 
ever will be, altogether unknown j and Gall and Spurzheim were 
far from pretending to dispel the obscurity in which the subject is 
enveloped. — Phren. Journal. 



96 MEMOIR OF SPURZHEIM. 

We now know the extent and boundaries of every 
region within our dominion ; we know the nature of 
the soil in every district ; what it will spontaneously 
pour forth — what attention and culture will produce. 
It is for us lo use the plough, the spade, and the har- 
row — to sow the good seed, to plant the olive and the 
vine — to pluck up the tares, to root out the brambles. 
1 Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ? ' 
We were aware before, but now we know with re- 
doubled conviction, that if we sow the wind, we must 
reap the whirlwind. 

From time to time arise men of highly gifted minds — 
persuasive, powerful, irresistible reformers. It would 
be profane here to advert to the inspired messengers 
of God : of the uninspired^ none has given to his race 
more valuable lessons for its gradual improvement, its 
progressive exaltation, its ultimate felicity, than the 
instructer we have lost. Enthusiasm formed no part 
of his character — all was dispassionate reason ; yet, if 
his precepts were to be influential in proportion to 
their worth — if society would but condescend to profit, 
as far as it might, by his instructions, the perfectability 
of man, however visionary, would not appear altogether 
a dream ; but in the lapse of time, however near man* 
kind may approach, however far they may fall short 
of the point of perfection, future ages may look back 
to the present, and with conscious obligation, and re- 
joicing gratitude, exclaim, c Hallowed be the memory, 
perpetual the influence of Spurzheim ! ' 






^i>2 


















S2 



» ' ^sa^.«*». 



> 



> 






^^>i> 



> 



~^> 



>> >* 



3K> > 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process- 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Nov. 2004 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 
1 1 1 Thomson Park Dnve 

ship. PA 16086 
-9-2U1 






► > 






2?^S^ 



®>^fc* 






: £S*^>y$> 



3SKfe)Ml 






U» 






life 



apsa>^^ 






w*^ 



y 



^3^J>^» 



